US and UK struck secret deal to allow NSA to 'unmask' Britons' personal data

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The Guardian - James Ball, 11/20/13

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The memo explains that the US and UK 'worked together to come up with a new policy that expands the use of incidentally collected unminimized UK data.'

 

The phone, internet and email records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing have been analysed and stored by America's National Security Agency under a secret deal that was approved by British intelligence officials, according to documents from the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In the first explicit confirmation that UK citizens have been caught up in US mass surveillance programs, an NSA memo describes how in 2007 an agreement was reached that allowed the agency to "unmask" and hold on to personal data about Britons that had previously been off limits.

More: TheGuardian.com

 

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