UK agency accesses US web spying data

Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ has been covertly gathering information from leading internet companies through a secret US spy programme.

The Guardian said it had obtained documents showing that GCHQ had access to the Prism system, set up by America’s National Security Agency (NSA), since at least Jun 2010.

The documents were said to show that the British agency had generated 197 intelligence reports through the system in the 12 months to May 2012 — a 137% rise on the previous year.

The newspaper said the Prism programme appeared to allow GCHQ circumvent the formal legal process required to obtain personal material, such as emails, photographs, and videos, from internet companies based outside the UK.

GCHQ refused to comment directly on the report, but in a statement insisted it operated within a “strict legal and policy framework”.

“GCHQ takes its obligations under the law very seriously,” it said.

“Our work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary, and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services Commissioners, and the Intelligence and Security Committee.”

The existence of the Prism system was disclosed by The Guardian and The Washington Post. It followed the disclosure of a secret court order requiring US telecoms company Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of US customers.

Details of Prism were said to have been set out in a 41-page PowerPoint presentation prepared for senior analysts at the NSA.

It is said to give the NSA and the FBI easy access to the systems of nine of the world’s top internet firms, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, and Skype. It was said to have been established in 2007 under changes to US surveillance laws passed under president George W Bush and renewed last year under Barack Obama.

Listening in

- President Barack Obama defended his government’s secret surveillance, saying Congress has repeatedly authorised the collection of America’s phone records and US internet use.

In his first comments since the programmes were revealed this week, Obama says safeguards are in place.

Obama says nobody is listening to the content of phone calls and the internet targeting is aimed at foreign nationals, not US citizens.

He says he increased some “safeguards” after taking office and believes they help his administration stop terrorist attacks.