The UK’s signals intelligence agancy, GCHQ (the NSA’s equivalent) can legally obtain and intercept British use of Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and web-based email clients like Hotmail (all U.S. firms) without individual warrants because these firms are based abroad, and therefore classed as “external communications” according to Charles Farr, director general of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism. Farr insisted that this mass data collection is rarely “read” or “listened to” except in limited circumstances.
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