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Google and Facebook Can Be Legally Intercepted, Says UK Spy Boss

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-can-trust-us dept.

mpicpp sends this news from the BBC: The U.K. government has revealed that intelligence service GCHQ can snoop on British citizens' use of Facebook, Twitter and Google without a warrant because the firms are based overseas. U.K. spy boss Charles Farr said that such platforms are classified as external communications. The policy was revealed as part of an ongoing legal battle with campaign group Privacy International (PI). PI said the interpretation of the law "patronizes the British people." According to Mr Farr, Facebook, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and web searches on Google, as well as webmail services such as Hotmail and Yahoo are classified as "external communications," which means that they can be intercepted without the need for additional legal clearance."

3 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Internal and External Simultaneously by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny that Facebook et al are internal when EU courts want to issue subpoenas or legal rulings, yet are external when the spy agencies want to snoop on them.
    Captcha: Gambit

    1. Re:Internal and External Simultaneously by brainboyz · · Score: 5, Funny

      We consider these services to be in quantum hyper-position states until a need is chosen.

  2. Re:So, why pay UK taxes? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the contracts are signed in Ireland, and both parties agree that the terms of the contract are to be governed by the laws of Ireland, then they are made in Ireland.

    They are not signed in Ireland they are signed in the UK where both parties live and work. You should not be allowed to just arbitrarily decide which countries laws apply when everything is taking place in the UK unless you are going to give individuals the same power and I can go shopping for the country with the lowest income tax rate too. The problem is that large, international companies can afford enough lawyers that they twist laws into knots to get out of paying their share of society's infrastructure costs.