‘Easier to eavesdrop on British people thanks to foreign cloud services’

If Brits use foreign cloud services, the British secret service can retrieve their conversations more easily than if they communicate via British networks. The British government regards conversations via foreign cloud services as ‘external communication’.

That even happens when it comes to communication between two Britons, The New York Times writes on the basis of government documents obtained by privacy organizations. As long as foreign communication networks or search engines are used, the communication may be requested, even if there is no concrete suspicion.

So-called internal communications are more strictly protected in the United Kingdom; this may only be requested if there is a concrete suspicion, named in a court order. The government therefore circumvents this legal protection by designating a large part of the domestic communication as foreign. It is not known how often the government actually requests ‘external communication’.