Monitoring

Lawful, proportionate and responsible intelligence gathering

Our work includes monitoring activist campaigns, protest activity, political movements, emerging campaigns, threats, incidents and other developments relevant to our clients.

All Welund intelligence gathering is conducted lawfully, openly and for legitimate purposes.

Open-source intelligence

Welund's work is principally based upon open-source intelligence: information that has been published or otherwise made legitimately available and which can lawfully be accessed by our analysts.

This includes news reporting, websites, public social-media content, campaign material, public statements, reports, regulatory information, court proceedings, public records and other legitimate information sources.

Welund does not possess or claim the investigatory powers available to the police or intelligence agencies. We do not rely upon Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act authorisations to obtain information, nor does RIPA provide Welund with surveillance powers.

Instead, our approach deliberately incorporates many of the safeguards that underpin the UK statutory framework governing professional intelligence gathering.

Applying the principles behind RIPA

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, together with its associated codes of practice, establishes safeguards governing certain forms of surveillance by public authorities.

A central principle is that surveillance should be both necessary for a legitimate purpose and proportionate to what it is intended to achieve. Welund applies the same principles to its own intelligence work.

Monitoring must therefore have a legitimate intelligence purpose. The nature and extent of collection must be proportionate to that purpose, and analysts should not collect information simply because it is technically possible to do so.

This means asking:

• Is there a legitimate reason for obtaining this information?
• Is it relevant to an identifiable threat, risk or intelligence requirement?
• Is the extent of the monitoring proportionate to that requirement?
• Could the same intelligence objective be achieved by collecting less information?
• Could the activity unnecessarily affect people who are not relevant to the intelligence requirement?
• Is there a legitimate reason for retaining the information?

These principles closely reflect the tests applied to public authorities under the UK's surveillance framework.

Public information does not mean unlimited collection

Welund recognises an important principle contained within official UK surveillance guidance: the fact that information can be seen in a public place or on a publicly accessible part of the internet does not mean that privacy considerations can simply be ignored.

The context, purpose, scale and persistence of monitoring all matter.

For example, examining publicly available material to understand a protest campaign, identify emerging threats or assess activity surrounding a client site is very different from unnecessarily compiling extensive information about an individual's private life.

Welund's intelligence gathering is therefore directed towards matters relevant to legitimate security, operational, reputational or strategic intelligence requirements rather than indiscriminate collection of information about individuals.

Data protection

Welund's processing of personal information is governed by UK data protection legislation, including the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The fundamental principles include:

• Lawfulness, fairness and transparency: personal information must be handled lawfully and fairly.
• Purpose limitation: information is collected for specified and legitimate purposes rather than simply accumulated because it may potentially be useful.
• Data minimisation: personal information should be adequate and relevant, but limited to what is necessary for the purpose concerned.
• Accuracy: reasonable steps should be taken to distinguish established facts from allegations, claims, assessments and opinions and to maintain the accuracy of information where appropriate.
• Storage limitation: personal information should not be retained indefinitely where there is no continuing justification for doing so.
• Security: information must be protected through appropriate technical and organisational safeguards.
• Accountability: organisations must be capable of demonstrating that appropriate procedures and safeguards are in place.

Where information falls into a category receiving additional protection under data protection law, including information revealing political opinions or trade-union membership, the additional legal requirements applying to that information must also be considered.

This is particularly relevant to political and activist intelligence, and forms an important part of the distinction between legitimate threat monitoring and indiscriminate profiling.

Intelligence about activity, not beliefs

Welund monitors activities and developments because they may have consequences for its clients. The fact that an individual or organisation holds a particular political, environmental, social or ideological viewpoint does not in itself constitute a threat.

Our role is to assess behaviour, capability, intention, activity and potential impact.

Peaceful protest, political campaigning and lawful advocacy are legitimate activities in a democratic society. They may nevertheless be operationally relevant to an organisation — for example where a demonstration could affect access to a site, where a campaign is targeting a company, or where activity could create business disruption.

Reporting such activity does not mean characterising those involved as criminals or extremists.

Welund seeks to distinguish clearly between lawful campaigning, civil disobedience, public-order issues, criminal activity and genuine security threats. That distinction is fundamental to objective intelligence assessment.

No covert investigatory powers

Welund's normal intelligence function does not involve the exercise of police powers, interception of communications, hacking, unlawful access to accounts or databases, or other intrusive techniques reserved to state authorities or otherwise prohibited by law.

Our intelligence is gathered from information that can legitimately be obtained and analysed, combined with professional assessment by experienced analysts.

The objective is not surveillance for its own sake. It is to identify relevant information, assess it objectively and provide clients with a proportionate understanding of threats and developments that may affect them.

Professional intelligence within a legal framework

Welund has operated since 2007 on the principle that good intelligence should reduce uncertainty rather than exaggerate threats.

That requires disciplined collection as well as disciplined analysis.

Our approach combines open-source intelligence, data-protection compliance and the principles of necessity and proportionality reflected in the UK's statutory surveillance framework.

The result is intelligence gathering that is professional, accountable and designed to remain firmly within the law.