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28 Feb, 2014

Yahoo webcam users’ ‘intimate’ images intercepted by British spies, Snowden files reveal – The Independent

British agents spied on millions of people through their webcams using a program likened to the surveillance system in George Orwell’s 1984, according to leaked secret documents.

The surveillance agency GCHQ used a hacking program codenamed Optic Nerve to view British citizens in their homes as they used the Yahoo! webcam chat system, the classified files revealed by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and published by The Guardian show.

Up to 11 per cent of the images contained what agents called “undesirable nudity”, according to the documents. It is unclear exactly how much information was obtained using Optic Nerve. However, in six months in 2008, images were obtained from more than 1.8 million Yahoo! user accounts around the world.

Read the rest: Yahoo webcam users’ ‘intimate’ images intercepted by GCHQ spy programme, Snowden files reveal – Gadgets & Tech – Life & Style – The Independent.