US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to ’unmask’ Britons’ personal data | World news

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  • US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to ’unmask’ Britons’ personal data | World news | The Guardian
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/20/us-uk-secret-deal-surveillance-personal-data

    In the first explicit confirmation that UK citizens have been caught up in US mass surveillance programs, an NSA memo describes how in 2007 an agreement was reached that allowed the agency to “unmask” and hold on to personal data about Britons that had previously been off limits.

    The memo, published in a joint investigation by the Guardian and Britain’s Channel 4 News, says the material is being put in databases where it can be made available to other members of the US intelligence and military community.

    Britain and the US are the main two partners in the ’Five-Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance, which also includes Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Until now, it had been generally understood that the citizens of each country were protected from surveillance by any of the others.

    But the #Snowden material reveals that:

    • In 2007, the rules were changed to allow the #NSA to analyse and retain any British citizens’ mobile phone and fax numbers, emails and IP addresses swept up by its dragnet. Previously, this data had been stripped out of NSA databases – “minimized”, in intelligence agency parlance – under rules agreed between the two countries.

    • These communications were “incidentally collected” by the NSA, meaning the individuals were not the initial targets of surveillance operations and therefore were not suspected of wrongdoing.

    • The NSA has been using the UK data to conduct so-called “pattern of life” or “contact-chaining” analyses, under which the agency can look up to three “hops” away from a target of interest – examining the communications of a friend of a friend of a friend. Guardian analysis suggests three hops for a typical Facebook user could pull the data of more than 5 million people into the dragnet.

    • A separate draft memo, marked top-secret and dated from 2005, reveals a proposed NSA procedure for spying on the citizens of the UK and other Five-Eyes nations, even where the partner government has explicitly denied the US permission to do so. The memo makes clear that partner countries must not be informed about this surveillance, or even the procedure itself.
    (…)
    The document does not say whether the UK Liaison Office, which is operated by #GCHQ, discussed this rule change with government ministers in London before granting approval, nor who within the intelligence agencies would have been responsible for the decision.

    • Vu via LeMonde.fr, beaucoup moins détaillé et moins précis : les autorités britanniques ? justement on ne sait pas si c’est interne au GCHQ ou si la décision est remontée au niveau politique (cf. ci-dessus)

      La Grande-Bretagne a autorisé l’espionnage de ses citoyens par la NSA
      http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2013/11/21/londres-a-donne-son-feu-vert-pour-l-espionnage-de-britanniques-par-la-nsa_35

      L’agence américaine de renseignement a pu espionner des citoyens britanniques grâce à un accord secret avec les autorités du Royaume-Uni, selon des documents communiqués par Edward Snowden et révélés mercredi 19 novembre par le quotidien britannique The Guardian et la télévision Channel 4.
      Les autorités britanniques ont donné leur feu vert en 2007 pour que les données concernant les contacts téléphoniques, les liaisons Internet et les courriers électroniques des Britanniques puissent être archivées et analysées par la NSA, selon ces informations.