In the Spy Game, Nothing is as it seems...

UK taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world's communications

GCHQ secretly tap global fibre-optic network for private data in scheme bigger than Prism, leaked documents show.

A British spy agency taps the network of cables that carry the world’s internet and telephone communications to secretly collect vast streams of private information, documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden has revealed.

The GCHQ agency scoops as much as it can from Facebook posts, email messages, internet histories and calls while tapping into the global fibre-optic network with little legal oversight, according to a report from the Guardian newspaper.


The activities are detailed in two documents leaked to the newspaper by Snowden, the former NSA and CIA worker who revealed America was spying on millions of foreigners and US nationals without their knowledge under the Prism scheme. The GCHQ scheme is billed as wider-ranging than Prism, with less legal oversight.

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So, apparently the GCHQ shares this data with the NSA. And that's, I'm guessing - from US sources. Let's put this in context - when the NSA stoneface stares into the camera and states they do not indiscriminately monitor US citizens, they're telling the truth. But the end of the sentence is that they let someone else do it and then get the data from them.