British Companies Give GCHQ Unlimited Access to Data on Undersea Fiber Optic Cables

[Catherina]

BT and Vodafone among telecoms companies passing details to GCHQ

Fears of customer backlash over breach of privacy as firms give GCHQ unlimited access to their undersea cables

James Ball, Luke Harding and Juliette Garside
The Guardian, Friday 2 August 2013 13.36 EDT


Verizon, BT and Vodafone Cable have given GCHQ secret unlimited access to their network of undersea cables. Photograph: composite

Some of the world's leading telecoms firms, including BT and Vodafone, are secretly collaborating with Britain's spy agency GCHQ, and are passing on details of their customers' phone calls, email messages and Facebook entries, documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden show.

BT, Vodafone Cable, and the American firm Verizon Business – together with four other smaller providers – have given GCHQ secret unlimited access to their network of undersea cables. The cables carry much of the world's phone calls and internet traffic.

...

The revelations are likely to dismay GCHQ and Downing Street, who are fearful that BT and the other firms will suffer a backlash from customers furious that their private data and intimate emails have been secretly passed to a government spy agency. In June a source with knowledge of intelligence said the companies had no choice but to co-operate in this operation. They are forbidden from revealing the existence of warrants compelling them to allow GCHQ access to the cables.

...
The document identified for the first time which telecoms companies are working with GCHQ's "special source" team. It gives top secret codenames for each firm, with BT ("Remedy&quot , Verizon Business ("Dacron&quot , and Vodafone Cable ("Gerontic&quot . The other firms include Global Crossing ("Pinnage&quot , Level 3 ("Little&quot , Viatel ("Vitreous&quot and Interoute ("Streetcar&quot . The companies refused to comment on any specifics relating to Tempora, but several noted they were obliged to comply with UK and EU law.

...

This operation is carried out under clandestine agreements with the seven companies, described in one document as "intercept partners". The companies are paid for logistical and technical assistance.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/aug/02/telecoms-bt-vodafone-cables-gchq

[WillyT]

1. K & R !!!

[Catherina]

2. In cynical twist: Vodafone defends paying no corporation tax two years in a row

Vodafone defends paying no corporation tax two years in a row

Vodafone has attempted to get on the front foot in defence of its complete avoidance of UK corporation tax for two years in a row by publishing a detailed breakdown of its contribution to the British economy and around the world.

...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/telecoms/10106945/Vodafone-defends-paying-no-corporation-tax-two-years-in-a-row.html

Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile phone firm, paid no UK corporation tax for a second year running in 2012.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22817704

[dkf]

5. That data they are providing is more valuable than any tax.

How much would that cost if the government had to pay for it. In a way the government is stealing from the telecoms or from individuals or someone.

[Catherina]

6. Is this why companies like Google get away with hiding their profits and demanding bigger refunds?

Google Sues IRS for $83.5 Million Tax Refund

and before that, this

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Defends Tax Dodge: 'It's Called Capitalism'

The Huffington Post | By Bonnie Kavoussi Posted: 12/13/2012

Google's chairman says he is "proud" of the way his company avoids paying taxes.

"It's called capitalism," Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg in a Wednesday article. "We are proudly capitalistic. I'm not confused about this."

"We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways," he said. "I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate."

Bloomberg reported on Monday that Google avoided paying $2 billion in global income taxes last year by housing profits in Bermuda, which has no corporate income tax. Google already had been paying a 2.4 percent overseas tax rate through tax avoidance strategies, according to a 2010 Bloomberg report. Its overall effective tax rate was 22.2 percent in 2009.

Google could not be reached for comment.

Google's effective U.S. tax rate is unclear. Citizens for Tax Justice did not analyze Google in a 2011 study because Google reports most of its profits as foreign, even though that may not be true.

...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/13/google-tax-dodge_n_2292077.html

Gawd I hate those people, More here

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Notice the criteria for what is examined include "Britain's economic wellbeing"

which could cover almost anything, if you wanted.

The source familiar with intelligence maintained in June that GCHQ was "not looking at every piece of straw" but was sifting a "vast haystack of data" for what he called "needles".

He added: "If you had the impression we are reading millions of emails, we are not. There is no intention in this whole programme to use it for looking at UK domestic traffic – British people talking to each other." The source said analysts used four criteria for determining what was examined: security, terror, organised crime and Britain's economic wellbeing."The vast majority of the data is discarded without being looked at … we simply don't have the resources."

[Catherina]

4. NSA has the same mission "economic wellbeing". Aka industrial espionage

We shoulda both stuck with manufacturing. That would have meant jobs instead of austerity+mass surveillance.

[roamer65]

7. Sounds like its right from Minitrue.