British spies can go through Americans’ telephone calls and emails without a warrant, reveals legal challenge in the UK –Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) privileged agreement with National Security Agency revealed 29 Oct 2014 British spies can help themselves to data collected by the NSA from the telephone calls and Internet communications of Americans without a warrant, a new court document shows. The agreement between the NSA and its British equivalent, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) means that American citizen’s data can be seen and stored by the United States’ closest ally without a warrant when that is ‘not technically feasible’. Anything discovered in the data, once obtained, can be kept by the British for up to two years and specifically relates to ‘unselected’ or raw data. But, this deadline can be extended unilaterally by ‘senior UK officials’ if they believe it to be necessary for national security purposes.
NSA Phone Surveillance Faces Fresh Court Test 31 Oct 2014 The National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records will face a fresh test this coming week when a Washington, D.C., appeals-court panel hears arguments over the surveillance program. Tuesday’s arguments are just one of three federal appeals-court challenges to the NSA’s gathering of millions of Americans’ phone records–an issue that could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The cases, which include two separate lawsuits in New York and San Francisco, were prompted by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations last year detailing the scope of U.S. government surveillance.