British spies are allowed to intercept Google and Facebook traffic, official says

British spies are authorized to spy on British citizens’ Internet communications transiting through servers outside the U.K., a civil rights group has discovered.

Privacy International uncovered the information as part of a lawsuit it filed against the U.K. government over its alleged involvement in mass surveillance programs. It filed the suit with the U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, a court that can investigate complaints about any alleged conduct by or on behalf of the intelligence services.

On Tuesday the group published a witness statement from Charles Farr, director general of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism at the U.K.’s Home Office, who is among the government officials and other witnesses who have made depositions in the case. His statement was published ahead of a hearing by the tribunal scheduled to take place between July 14 and 18.

Farr, one of the U.K.’s most senior security officials, said British spies have the right to intercept Internet communications even if they are from British citizens because the services often use Web servers located outside the U.K. Many messages “such as a Google search, a search of YouTube for a video, a ‘tweet’ on Twitter, or the posting of a message on Facebook,” could be qualified as external by the intelligence services, he said.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2364560/british-spies-are-allowed-to-intercept-google-and-facebook-traffic-official-says.html