16 August 2013

Wholesale spying on New Zealanders is a certainty under GCSB Bill

The Prime Minister’s assurance that the GCSB will only be able to spy on New Zealanders under a warrant from the Prime Minister or Director General of Security and Intelligence is a half-truth which falls apart under scrutiny.

In the case where the GCSB is spying on behalf of the police, the SIS or Defence Force this could be the case but under its new expanded functions in the GCSB and TICS (Telecommunications Interception Capability and Security) Bills it is empowered to gather all data from “information structures” (ie internet companies) related to New Zealanders electronic communications.

To search this data the GCSB will require a warrant in most circumstances but through “access authorisation” and co-operation with foreign partner agencies the data will be automatically available to the US National Security Agency for search without warrant.

The National Security Agency says “if you are looking for a needle in a haystack then you need access to the whole haystack” and the GCSB role is to provide access to the New Zealand section of the haystack.

Courtesy of whistle-blower Edward Snowden the following are three pages from an NSA training manual about the capabilities of XKEYSCORE which shows how it works:

(It’s no surprise the Prime Minister has refused to discuss XKEYSCORE)

Click for big version.

Monday night’s Town Hall public meeting will further expand on this international surveillance and search of New Zealanders’ private data.

ENDS

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