It isn't just the NSA: Digital surveillance programs trigger controversy abroad

Last week’s disclosure of massive data collection efforts at the U.S. National Security Agency has generated heated debate in the U.S. and across the world about privacy. The NSA is collecting metadata on U.S. residents’ phone calls made on Verizon’s network and Internet records from nine Web companies, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, according to reports in the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers.

But intelligence agencies in other countries have similar goals, according to reports, and in some cases there are few details about what data these governments are collecting.

U.K.

Leaks about the NSA program by former contractor Edward Snowden have led to questions in the U.K. about the data that intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is collecting. Facing questions about GCHQ’s access to Internet data collected through the NSA’s PRISM program, Prime Minister David Cameron defended U.K. intelligence services and said they comply with the law.

“Let us be clear,” Cameron said in a Guardian article. “We cannot give a running commentary on the intelligence services. I am satisfied that the intelligence services, who do a fantastically important job to keep us safe, operate within the law and within a legal framework and they also operate within a proper framework of scrutiny by the intelligence and security committee.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2042107/digital-surveillance-programs-in-other-countries-trigger-controversy.html#tk.rss_all

music videos muslim my My Top Ten Squidoo Lenses Myanmar