Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, a UK government security and intelligence agency, has code-named a sweeping surveillance program "Karma Police", after the Radiohead song, The Intercept reports. It was launched seven years ago "without any public debate or scrutiny," according to the Intercept, and built with the intent of secretly collecting information on the public's internet use. The program's existence was revealed in documents obtained by the Intercept through former U.S. National Security Agency subcontractor Edward Snowden, whose whistleblowing sparked a large debate about the role of governmental surveillance.
The Intercept says the program's code name wasn't discussed in the documents, but that its goals were explicitly stated: to provide GCHQ with "either (a) a web browsing profile for every visible user on the Internet, or (b) a user profile for every visible website on the Internet." The metadata information was collected in bulk, and analyzed afterwards for signs of conspiracy—such as trying to track down the listeners of an internet radio station that frequently broadcasted recitations from the Quran.
According to the Intercept, the program was begun between 2007 and 2008. More than 1.1 trillion records were collected between August 2007 and March 2009, with 50 billion records accumulating per day by 2012.
Pitchfork has reached out to Radiohead's representatives for comment.
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