POLICE forces across Britain are secretly downloading smartphone data from innocent people without obtaining warrants or even notifying them, campaigners revealed yesterday.

Privacy International (PI) said police are using “highly intrusive technology” to extract data from people’s phones “on a questionable legal basis” and called for an immediate independent review into the “widespread, intrusive [and] secretive practice.”

The campaign group also said that Britain’s “serious problems” with “discriminatory policing” could be exacerbated by use of the technology, which could “disproportionately and unfairly” affect ethnic minorities and political activists.