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GCHQ storing vast quantities of emails, facebook posts.

A British spy agency has been collecting and storing vast quantities of global email messages, Fa...
Newstalk
Newstalk

22.49 21 Jun 2013


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GCHQ storing vast quantities o...

GCHQ storing vast quantities of emails, facebook posts.

Newstalk
Newstalk

22.49 21 Jun 2013


Share this article


A British spy agency has been collecting and storing vast quantities of global email messages, Facebook posts, internet histories and calls, and sharing them their US counterparts.

The Guardian's reporting that GCHQ has tapped into the network of fibre-optic cables that carry email and telephone traffic.

The existence of the programme has been disclosed in documents shown to the Guardian by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as part of his attempt to expose what he has called "the largest programme of suspicionless surveillance in human history".

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"It's not just a US problem. The UK has a huge dog in this fight," Snowden told the Guardian. "They [GCHQ] are worse than the US."

However, a source with knowledge of intelligence argued that the data was collected legally under a system of safeguards, and had provided material that had led to significant breakthroughs in detecting and preventing serious crime.

Sky's Sophie Ridge is at the British Foreign Office.


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