Former spy chief warns over watching social networks A former Whitehall intelligence chief is warning that perceived fears of state surveillance are having a "chilling effect" on the use of social media. Sir David Omand, an ex-Cabinet Office security and intelligence coordinator and former director of the GCHQ electronic eavesdropping agency, says it is vital that any legislation on digital monitoring is implemented with a firm legal footing. Sir David co-authored a report, alongside think-tank Demos, which found that laws regarding the interception of communications by police and intelligence agencies needed to be overhauled to meet the changing face of social media and internet use. Whilst he admitted that intelligence gathered from sites such as Facebook could be a vital source of information in identifying criminal activity or providing early warning of disorder, it said the public needed to be confident it was not being abused. "Democratic legitimacy demands that where new methods of intelligence gathering and use are to be introduced they should be on a firm legal basis and rest on parliamentary and public understanding of what is involved, even if the operational details of the sources and methods used must sometimes remain secret," the report said. In respect of Socmint (evidence obtained from social media) these conditions of democratic legitimacy are presently absent. Sir David said that proper regulation was essential to ensure public trust in the system. "The problem with social media is that it doesn't really fit the 19th and 20th century structures we have for how you go about regulating these matters," he said. After Iraq, we must be sure that if people are engaged in this kind of monitoring, they are doing it for the reasons set out in the authorisation (and that) it has not been politicised. A Home Office spokesman said: "Communications data, the who, when and where of a communication, has played a role in every major security service counter-terrorism operation over the past decade and in 95 per cent of all serious organised crime investigations, that includes cracking down on gang crime and paedophile rings. Interception of the content of a communication is only possible with a warrant signed by the Secretary of State and we have no plans to change this.