Part 1: General Privacy Protections Section 4: Definition of "interception" etc.
This section defines interception and sets out when interception is regarded as taking place in the United Kingdom.
	Subsections (1) to (5) set out what constitutes intercepting a communication in the course of its transmission by a telecommunications system. There are three elements. Firstly the person must perform a "relevant act", which is defined in subsection (2) and includes modifying or interfering with the system. Secondly, the consequence of the relevant act must be to make the content of the communication available to a person who is not the sender or intended recipient. Thirdly, the content must be made available at a "relevant time", which means a time while the communication is being transmitted or any time when the communication is stored in or by the system.
	The definition of a relevant time makes it clear that interception includes obtaining stored communications, such as messages stored on phones, tablets and other individual devices whether before or after they are sent.
Example:
An email which has been sent and is stored on an email server or a voicemail message which has been stored on a telecommunications system to be retrieved later. This would also include an email which had not been sent by an individual but was stored on a server (e.g. a draft email).
	Section 125(3) of the Postal Services Act 2000 explains that a postal packet is in the course of transmission from the time it is posted (i.e. delivered to a post office or letter box) to the time it is delivered to the person to whom it was addressed. The same rule applies in this Act.