Mastering the Internet

Mastering the Internet (MTI)[1][2] is a mass surveillance project led by the British communications intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) budgeted at over £1 billion. According to reports in The Register and The Sunday Times in early May 2009, contracts with a total value of £200m had already been awarded to suppliers.[3][4]

Responding to these reports, GCHQ issued a press release countering these claims of mass surveillance, stating that "GCHQ is not developing technology to enable the monitoring of all internet use and phone calls in Britain, or to target everyone in the UK."[5]

However, the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures revealed that GCHQ gathers "raw" information (without filtering out the communications of British citizens) from the web as part of its "Mastering the Internet" programme.[6]

  1. ^ "Mastering the internet: how GCHQ set out to spy on the world wide web". The Guardian. 21 June 2013.
  2. ^ GCHQ taps fibre-optic cables for secret access to world's communications, The Guardian,21 Jun 2013. Retrieved Jul 2013.
  3. ^ David Leppard and Chris Williams (3 May 2009). "Jacqui Smith's secret plan to carry on snooping". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on 6 January 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  4. ^ Chris Williams (3 May 2009). "Jacqui's secret plan to 'Master the Internet'". The Register. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  5. ^ "Government 'not planning to monitor all web use'". The Daily Telegraph. London. 4 May 2009. Retrieved 4 May 2009.
  6. ^ Tom Whitehead. "Americans pay GCHQ £100m to spy for them, leaked papers claim". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 19 October 2013.