© Ben Birchall/ReutersPeople sit at computers in the 24 hour Operations Room inside GCHQ, Cheltenham in Cheltenham.
Comment: Well isn't he just the everlasting gobstopper fun intelligence facts.
Documents obtained by the Intercept show UK spies got the NZ-based firm Endace to create data capture technology that scooped up information.
The CEO of Endace, which was founded in 2001 as an outgrowth of an academic project, was recently bought and then cut loose by the US company Emulex.
Comment: Guess they weren't that successful.
At the time of its return to independent status, CEO Stuart Wilson said, "operating as an independent company again allows us to continue to deliver innovative solutions to our customers under the Endace brand they've known and trusted for more than 15 years."
The firm boasts it can provide "100 percent accurate network recording, any speed, any network and works with the world's top 10 telecommunications giants and a number of leading US defense departments among others."
Comment: Not as impressive as it sounds.
The revelations include confirmation that Endace is bound by the UK's Official Secrets Act, which prevents any disclosure of its work for the British authorities.
A cache of leaked documents seen by the Intercept, which conducted an investigation alongside Television New Zealand, are said to detail "the firm's key role helping governments across the world harvest vast amounts of information on people's private emails, online chats, social media conversations, and internet browsing histories."
The Intercept says the leaks highlight "the vital role played by the private sector in enabling the spying."
Comment: Oops, your agenda is showing.
The Auckland-based firm operates under the motto "power to see all" and uses an eye as its emblem.
Comment: Ominous.
Endace maintains it contributes to New Zealand's export market and helps clients fighting terrorism, crime and state-sponsored cyber warfare.
Comment: Probably loosely true. Any entity actually committing crimes via the internet (like state terrorism), would be aware of basic data capture methods and would sidestep the issue by volume and obfuscation at the least. This is all part of the mirage that is big data. It seems like an oasis of power, but really its just a mental trap bogging you down in the mire of being over-informed and thus not being able to accurately distill large amounts of data to a consumable size. The United States of America has arguably the largest military and intelligence apparatus. They likely collect the most data - look how stupid they are.
Electronic warfare is much older than these people have been in business. Telecommunications have been monitored since they started being used. Why doesn't someone ask native Americans about smoke signals. That was telecommunications too.