David Davis comments across the papers in relation to GCHQ intercepting streamed webcam chats from Yahoo users
As published in the London Evening Standard:
Yahoo webcam images ‘harvested by GCHQ spies’
Security agency GCHQ intercepted sexually explicit material as it harvested webcam images from millions of internet users, it was claimed today.
The latest revelations about surveillance operations show how GCHQ worked with America’s National Security Agency (NSA)to collect still images from Yahoo web chats.
As much as 11 per cent of the pictures stored by the listening post contained “undesirable nudity”, the Guardian reported.
Yahoo reacted with fury to the reports, syaing they represented a “whole new level of violation.”
Revealing that sexually explicit pictures proved to be a problem for GCHQ, the leaked document said: “Unfortunately… it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person.
“Also, the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography.”
Codenamed Optic Nerve, the operation saved images to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were suspected of wrongdoing, The Guardian said.
Rather than collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the program saved one image every five minutes from the users’ feeds, the newspaper added.
Dating between 2008 and 2010, the GCHQ files reportedly show in one six-month period alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.
Optic Nerve began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, The Guardian said.
The system was used for experiments in automated facial recognition, to monitor GCHQ’s existing targets, and to discover new targets of interest, the newspaper added.
A Yahoo spokeswoman said: “We were not aware of, nor would we condone, this reported activity.
“This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December.
“We are committed to preserving our users’ trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services.”
GCHQ declined to comment on the claims.
Mr Snowden originally leaked information last May to The Guardian, Washington Post, a location in Rio de Janeiro and another in Germany, which revealed mass surveillance programmes such as the NSA-run Prism and the GCHQ-operated Tempora.
Under the £1 billion Tempora operation, Cheltenham-based GCHQ is understood to have secretly accessed fibre-optic cables carrying huge amounts of internet and communications data and shared the information with the NSA.
Reacting to the latest disclosures, MP David Davis said: “We now know that millions of Yahoo account holders were filmed without their knowledge through their webcams, the images of which were subsequently stored by GCHQ and the NSA.
“This is, frankly, creepy.
“It is perfectly proper for our intelligence agencies to use any and all means to target people for whom there are reasonable grounds for suspicion of terrorism, kidnapping and other serious crimes. It is entirely improper to extend such intrusive surveillance on a blanket scale to ordinary citizens.”
Critics have claimed Mr Snowden’s disclosures have aided terrorists, while others believe the move could be illegal.
Earlier this year, MI5 director general Andrew Parker warned in a speech that revealing details about the work of GCHQ was a “gift to terrorists”, while Sir John Sawers, head of MI6, said terrorists were “rubbing their hands with glee”.
But supporters believe the leaks exposed an abuse of powers among the security and intelligence services in the UK and US and have contributed to a much-needed debate on their oversight and role.
Nick Pickles, director of civil liberties campaigner group Big Brother Watch, said: “Secretly intercepting and taking photographs from millions of people’s webcam chats is as creepy as it gets.
“We have CCTV on our streets and now we have GCHQ in our homes.
“It is right that the security services can target people and tap their communications but they should not be doing it to millions of people.
“This is an indiscriminate and intimate intrusion on people’s privacy.
“It is becoming increasingly obvious how badly the law has failed to keep pace with technology and how urgently we need a comprehensive review of surveillance law and oversight structures.
“As more people buy technology with built-in cameras, from Xbox Kinect to laptops and smart TVs, we need to be sure that the law does not allow for them to be routinely accessed when there is no suspicion of any wrongdoing.
“Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.”
As published in the Daily Mail:
GCHQ Secretly Harvested Millions of Webcam Images’
Britain’s spy agency collected webcam images – including sexually explicit material – from millions of innocent internet users.
Agents at GCHQ intercepted streamed webcam chats from Yahoo users and stored their images using a surveillance programme codenamed Optic Nerve.
In one six-month period in 2008, the intelligence agency collected images from more than 1.8million Yahoo users around the world – regardless of whether they were terror suspects or not.
Leaked top-secret documents reveal that up to 11 per cent of the stored images contained undesirable nudity’.
The revelations are the latest from a batch of files published by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the US defence worker who has exposed shocking details of how spy agencies snoop on people around the world.
Optic Nerve – which critics last night branded eerily reminiscent of telescreens in George Orwell’s novel 1984 – was run with the aid of the US National Security Agency. It was intended for use in experiments in automated facial recognition to try to find terror suspects.
Rather than collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the system saved one image every five minutes from the users’ feeds between 2008 and 2010
. But documents leaked to The Guardian revealed that sexually explicit pictures proved to be a problem for GCHQ.
One comment from the agency read said: Unfortunately … it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person.
Also, the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography.’ Internet giant Yahoo reacted furiously to the claims.
A spokesman said: We were not aware of, nor would we condone, this reported activity.
This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December. We are committed to preserving our users’ trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services.’
Tory MP David Davis said: This is, frankly, creepy. It is perfectly proper for our intelligence agencies to use any and all means to target people for whom there are reasonable grounds for suspicion of terrorism, kidnapping and other serious crimes.
It is entirely improper to extend such intrusive surveillance on a blanket scale to ordinary citizens.’
Nick Pickles, director of civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: This is an indiscriminate and intimate intrusion on people’s privacy. Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.’
GCHQ declined to comment on the claims.
Mr Snowden originally leaked information about the attempts by government spy agencies to harvest private information from millions of people.
Earlier this year, MI5 director general Andrew Parker warned that revealing details about GCHQ’s work was a gift to terrorists’.
U-TURN OVER BAN ON CCTV PARKING FINES
CONTROVERSIAL CCTV cameras that target millions of motorists for parking fines are set to survive a promised Government cull, it emerged yesterday.
The use of enforcement cameras outside schools and other sensitive areas could carry on despite a previous vow to ban them.
Roads Minister Robert Goodwill told a conference of parking chiefs that, when it came to scrapping all the cameras, no decisions had been made’, and that they might still be used outside schools.
That contradicted previous pledges to outlaw all of the controversial cameras, which can issue penalties of up to £130 a time. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles had previously vowed to ban them, accusing bullying’ councils of fleecing drivers on an industrial scale’.
Councils rake in £30million a year from CCTV-led parking fines.
A Government consultation on the issue also stated: The Government intends to abolish use of CCTV cameras for parking enforcement.’
Mr Goodwill was speaking at a summit in London organised by the British Parking Association, which represents 700 councils and private sector operators.
As published in The Express:
Agency ‘spied on millions’ of net users
A British spy agency has tapped into the webcam images of millions of unsuspecting internet users, it was claimed yesterday.
Top secret documents leaked by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden are said to show that Operation Optic Nerve was run by Cheltenham-based GCHQ until at least 2012.
With the help of America’s National Security Agency, it collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats – including sexually explicit material.
These were saved to agency databases – regardless of whether the users were suspected of wrongdoing.
One campaigner last night said the snooping was “as creepy as it gets”.
Some 1.8 million accounts globally were said to be targeted in six months in 2008.
Analysts were experimenting in automatic facial recognition, to monitor existing targets and discover others.
Nick Pickles, director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “Secretly intercepting and taking photographs from millions of people’s webcam chats is as creepy as it gets.” He said the law had failed to keep pace with technology, adding: “Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.”
A Yahoo spokeswoman said: “This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy.”
Tory MP David Davis said: “What were ministers, GCHQ bosses and the oversight commissioner thinking when they allowed this grotesquely disproportionate invasion of privacy?”
As published in Western Morning News:
GCHQ’s storing of webcam images a ‘creepy’ intrusion
Internet giant Yahoo has branded claims that UK spy agency GCHQ intercepted and stored webcam images of millions of users as a “whole new level of violation”.
In its latest report on files leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, The Guardian newspaper claims a surveillance programme operated by GCHQ, with aid from America’s National Security Agency (NSA), collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk.
Codenamed Optic Nerve, the operation saved images to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were suspected of wrongdoing, the newspaper said.
In a furious reaction to the report, a Yahoo spokesman said: “We were not aware of, nor would we condone, this reported activity.
“This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December.
“We are committed to preserving our users’ trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services.”
GCHQ declined to comment on the claims.
Dating between 2008 and 2010, the GCHQ files reportedly show in one six-month period alone that the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally. Optic Nerve began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, The Guardian reported.
The system was used for experiments in automated facial recognition, to monitor GCHQ’s existing targets, and to discover new targets of interest, the newspaper added. Rather than collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the program saved one image every five minutes from the users’ feeds, The Guardian said, while sexually explicit webcam material proved to be a particular problem for GCHQ. Between 3% and 11% of the Yahoo webcam imagery harvested by GCHQ contains “undesirable nudity”, the document reportedly said.
Reacting to the claims, MP David Davis branded the revelation “creepy”, adding: “It is perfectly proper for our intelligence agencies to use any and all means to target people for whom there are reasonable grounds for suspicion of terrorism, kidnapping and other serious crimes. It is entirely improper to extend such intrusive surveillance on a blanket scale to ordinary citizens.”
Nick Pickles, director of civil liberties campaigner group Big Brother Watch, said it was “an indiscriminate and intimate intrusion”.
Under the £1 billion Tempora operation, Cheltenhambased GCHQ is understood to have secretly accessed fibreoptic cables carrying huge amounts of internet and communications data and shared the information with the NSA.
As published in The Guardian:
GCHQ’s interception and storage of Yahoo webcam images condemned
Politicians and human rights groups have reacted angrily to revelations that Britain’s spy agency intercepted and stored webcam images of millions of people not suspected of any wrongdoing with the aid of its US counterpart.
GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 reveal that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected images of Yahoo webcam chats in bulk and saved them to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were an intelligence target or not.
In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam images, including substantial quantities of sexually explicit material, from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.
The Tory MP David Davis said:
“We now know that millions of Yahoo account holders were filmed without their knowledge through their webcams, the images of which were subsequently stored by GCHQ and the NSA. This is, frankly, creepy.”
Davis, said it was perfectly proper for the intelligence agencies to use any and all means to target those suspected of terrorism, kidnapping and other serious crimes, but that the indiscriminate nature of the programme was alarming.
“It is entirely improper to extend such intrusive surveillance on a blanket scale to ordinary citizens,” he said.
The Liberal Democrat MP Julian Huppert said he was “absolutely shocked” at the revelation. “This seems like a very clear invasion of privacy, and I simply can not see what the justification is,” he said.
The Optic Nerve documents were provided by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. They show that the programme began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012.
They chronicle GCHQ’s sustained efforts to keep the large store of sexually explicit material Optic Nerve collected away from the eyes of its staff, though there is little discussion about the privacy implications of storing it in the first place.
The system, eerily reminiscent of the telescreens evoked in George Orwell’s 1984, was used for experiments in automated facial recognition to monitor GCHQ’s existing targets, and to identity new ones.
Nick Pickles, the director of the civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, said intercepting and taking photographs from millions of people’s webcam chats was “as creepy as it gets”.
“We have CCTV on our streets and now we have GCHQ in our homes. It is right that the security services can target people and tap their communications, but they should not be doing it to millions of people. This is an indiscriminate and intimate intrusion on people’s privacy.”
Pickles said it was a further example of how the legal and oversight regimes for the security services had failed to keep pace with technological advances.
“It is becoming increasingly obvious how badly the law has failed to keep pace with technology, and how urgently we need a comprehensive review of surveillance law and oversight structures.
“As more people buy technology with built-in cameras, from Xbox Kinect to laptops and smart TVs, we need to be sure that the law does not allow for them to be routinely accessed when there is no suspicion of any wrongdoing. Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.”
Carly Nyst, Privacy International’s legal director, said the revelation underlined the importance of democratic societies being able to limit the activities of intelligence agencies.
“Today we’ve found out that the way we now use technology to stay in touch with friends, family and loved ones means many of our most private thoughts and experiences are available for viewing by GCHQ. How can collecting and storing these intimate moments possibly help protect national security?
Alex Abdo, from the American Civil Liberties Union, described the revelations as “truly shocking”.
“[It] underscores the importance of the debate on privacy now taking place and the reforms being considered. In a world in which there is no technological barrier to pervasive surveillance, the scope of the government’s surveillance activities must be decided by the public, not secretive spy agencies interpreting secret legal authorities.”
As published in the Daily Mail:
Have millions of webcam users had their sex pictures harvested by the NSA?
UK spy agency GCHQ has reportedly harvested webcam images – including sexually explicit material – of millions of internet users.
In its latest report on files leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Guardian newspaper claims a surveillance programme operated by GCHQ, with aid from America’s National Security Agency (NSA), collected still images of Yahoo webcam chats.
Between 3 per cent and 11 per cent of the Yahoo webcam imagery stored by the Cheltenham-based listening post contain ‘undesirable nudity’, the previously top-secret documents reveal.
Internet giant Yahoo reacted furiously to the claims, branding them a ‘whole new level of violation’.
Revealing that sexually explicit pictures proved to be a problem for GCHQ, the leaked document said: ‘Unfortunately… it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person.
‘Also, the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography.’
Codenamed Optic Nerve, the operation saved images to agency databases, regardless of whether individual users were suspected of wrongdoing, The Guardian said.
Rather than collecting webcam chats in their entirety, the program saved one image every five minutes from the users’ feeds, the newspaper added.
Dating between 2008 and 2010, the GCHQ files reportedly show in one six-month period alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.
Optic Nerve began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, The Guardian said.
The system was used for experiments in automated facial recognition, to monitor GCHQ’s existing targets, and to discover new targets of interest, the newspaper added.
‘Unfortunately… it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person’
Leaked document
A Yahoo spokesman said: ‘We were not aware of, nor would we condone, this reported activity.
‘This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December.
‘We are committed to preserving our users’ trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services.’
GCHQ declined to comment on the claims.
Mr Snowden originally leaked information last May to The Guardian, Washington Post, a location in Rio de Janeiro and another in Germany, which revealed mass surveillance programmes such as the NSA-run Prism and the GCHQ-operated Tempora.
Under the £1 billion Tempora operation, Cheltenham-based GCHQ is understood to have secretly accessed fibre-optic cables carrying huge amounts of internet and communications data and shared the information with the NSA.
Reacting to the latest disclosures, MP David Davis said: ‘We now know that millions of Yahoo account holders were filmed without their knowledge through their webcams, the images of which were subsequently stored by GCHQ and the NSA. This is, frankly, creepy.
‘This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December’
Yahoo spokesman
‘It is perfectly proper for our intelligence agencies to use any and all means to target people for whom there are reasonable grounds for suspicion of terrorism, kidnapping and other serious crimes. It is entirely improper to extend such intrusive surveillance on a blanket scale to ordinary citizens.’
Critics have claimed Mr Snowden’s disclosures have aided terrorists, while others believe the move could be illegal.
Earlier this year, MI5 director general Andrew Parker warned in a speech that revealing details about the work of GCHQ was a ‘gift to terrorists’, while Sir John Sawers, head of MI6, said terrorists were ‘rubbing their hands with glee’.
But supporters believe the leaks exposed an abuse of powers among the security and intelligence services in the UK and US and have contributed to a much-needed debate on their oversight and role.
Nick Pickles, director of civil liberties campaigner group Big Brother Watch, said: ‘Secretly intercepting and taking photographs from millions of people’s webcam chats is as creepy as it gets.
‘Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual’
Nick Pickles, Big Brother Watch
‘We have CCTV on our streets and now we have GCHQ in our homes. It is right that the security services can target people and tap their communications but they should not be doing it to millions of people.
‘This is an indiscriminate and intimate intrusion on people’s privacy. It is becoming increasingly obvious how badly the law has failed to keep pace with technology and how urgently we need a comprehensive review of surveillance law and oversight structures.
‘As more people buy technology with built-in cameras, from Xbox Kinect to laptops and smart TVs, we need to be sure that the law does not allow for them to be routinely accessed when there is no suspicion of any wrongdoing.
‘Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.’