Edward Snowden leaks: UK officials let NSA access British citizens' personal data

 
Nominated: Edward Snowden
Staff|Agency21 November 2013

American intelligence agencies were given permission to track phone calls, emails and internet records of British citizens in a secret deal struck with UK officials, it has been claimed.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) reached an agreement in 2007 to access information they were not previously allowed to, according to the latest leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Previously citizens of the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand had been protected from surveillance from one another's intelligence agencies under the 'Five Eyes' partnership.

But under the terms of a renegotiation six years ago, the NSA was allowed to analyse and retain the mobile phone and fax numbers, email and IP addresses of any British citizen.

According to an investigation by Channel 4 News and the Guardian the information could be collected 'incidentally', rather than through a targeted campaign focusing on specific suspects.

The leaked memo states: "Sigint [signals intelligence] policy ... and the UK Liaison Office here at NSAW [NSA Washington] worked together to come up with a new policy that expands the use of incidentally collected unminimized UK data in Sigint analysis.

"The new policy expands the previous memo issued in 2004 that only allowed the unminimizing of incidentally collected UK phone numbers for use in analysis.

"Now SID analysts can unminimize all incidentally collected UK contact identifiers, including IP and email addresses, fax and cell phone numbers, for use in analysis."

According to the investigation, another document, marked top-secret and dating back to 2005, sets out a proposed NSA procedure for spying on the citizens of the Five Eyes partnership even when the United States has explicitly been denied permission to do so by a particular state.

The Collection, Processing and Dissemination of Allied Communications memo is marked "NF", for No Foreign, in parts and lays out proposals stating governments "reserved the right" to conduct intelligence operations against each other's citizens "when it is in the best interests of each nation".

It adds that "under certain circumstances, it may be advisable and allowable to target second party persons and second party communications systems unilaterally, when it is in the best interests of the US and necessary for US national security".

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said: "We were told innocent people's communications would not be processed, only for a whistleblower to reveal that the last government struck a deal to allow the USA to do exactly that.

"Yet again the question must be asked if this agreement was intended to circumvent the law governing surveillance of British citizens by domestic agencies.

"It is not good enough for Jack Straw and Margaret Beckett to hide from scrutiny. They should be held accountable by Parliament for any secret deal struck to sell out British citizens privacy."

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