Now You Can Find Out if the NSA and GCHQ Spied on You

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Thanks to a legal victory #Privacy_International obtained earlier this year, the #UK’s #Investigatory_Powers_Tribunal is now required to search through data the #GCHQ obtained from the #NSA for #information collected on #anyone in the world if that person so requests it. If #you #request the #info and the #Tribunal finds something, it must let #you #know. The catch is #you have to make the request before December 5, 2015. #Privacy_International has made this easy with its “Did GCHQ Illegally Spy on You?” online tool.

Earlier this year the #Investigatory_Powers_Tribunal in the #UK ruled that British intelligence services acted unlawfully when they accessed the #private #communications of millions of #people that had been collected by the #NSA under its #mass-surveillance programs known as #PRISM and #Upstream and shared with the #British #spy agency. The #PRISM program, which began in 2007, allowed the #NSA to collect #data in bulk from #US #companies like #Yahoo and #Google. The #Upstream program involved the collection of #data from #taps placed on hundreds of undersea cables outside the #US.

The #Tribunal will only search for #records #shared between the #NSA and #GCHQ prior to December 2014. And, unfortunately, it won’t #reveal if the #GCHQ obtained #data about #you on its own and/or #shared it with the #NSA, or if the #NSA spied on you and didn’t #share that #data with #GCHQ. The amount of data the #Tribunal will search may also be limited.

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#privacy #internet #surveillance #spying