UK spy agency intercepted webcam images of millions of Yahoo users
Source: Guardian UK
Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.
GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program codenamed Optic Nerve collected still 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 imagery including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.
Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy".
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo
It is only meta data they keep saying.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Just putting that high in the convo, because the title might otherwise generate 'but the UK isn't the US' responses.
TM99
(8,352 posts)I often forget that most don't read beyond the title or even the first paragraph before jumping to emotionally charged preconceived conclusions.
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)..."five eyes"...
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)like everyone else can why not the NSA. Easiest site I guess to hack. I've been hacked twice , and just about anyone else I know. least secure email system out there
TM99
(8,352 posts)whether or not it is 'easy' or 'not easy' to hack their email system.
This is a direct siphoning of cam activity between the 2 YIM clients of a private citizens relayed through Yahoo servers....without a warrant....and without probable cause.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)Spreading the FUD ("hack their email system" in order to degrade the message
(warrantless deliberate widespread interception & storage of private communication
between non-targeted individuals).
OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)Inquiring minds want to know.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)GCHQ should be ashamed of it's stazi like spying in virtual bedrooms.
FUCK THE SPYS!
jsr
(7,712 posts)Yahoo is full of them.
Lenomsky
(340 posts)Not all geeks are pervs *cough*