The Problem with PRISM - the dangers of mass surveillance
Channel: OpenRightsGroup
Date: 2013-08-01

What is PRISM and Tempora? Why should we care about mass surveillance? How can we stop it?

Eric King from Privacy International, Rachel Robinson from Liberty, Jim Killock from Open Rights Group and Julian Huppert MP explain how these surveillance programmes work, what the main dangers for society are and what can be done about it.

PRISM is a surveillance program run by the American National Security Agency. It gives them access to user data stored by companies such as Microsoft and Facebook. This is just one of the systems that the NSA has been using to access vast amounts of personal data via the USA's communications infrastructure. 

We also know that the UK's GCHQ (the British communications monitoring agency) has a system that can intercept data sent through over 200 undersea fibre optic cables entering the UK. This data can be held for 3 days (with metadata held for 30). Known as 'TEMPORA', data acquired by this system can be accessed by both GCHQ and NSA personnel.