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How UK security agencies use telecoms firms to spy on us
British spies have required BT to give them access to public communications since 1985, declassified files show
Recent news that the Home Office has ordered Apple to enable access to iCloud encrypted data has stirred public debate about the scope and secrecy of UK surveillance laws. Back then, Cable and Wireless (a publicly owned company that was privatised in the 1980s before being bought by Vodafone), ran all of the UK’s international phone calls and telegrams together with the Post Office, which was a government department responsible for domestic telecommunications. Sixty years of secret history show a common theme: under cover of “national security” and with little oversight, the UK has treated global communications – from undersea cables to end-to-end encryption – as if they were state property.
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