BBC News, 27
February 2014
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| Almost 2 million users' images were stored in a six-month period, the report said |
Yahoo
denied prior knowledge of the alleged programme, describing it as a
"completely unacceptable" privacy violation.
According
to leaked documents, sexually explicit images were among those gathered -
although not intentionally.
In a
statement GCHQ has said all of its actions are in accordance with the law.
The
operation, which was called Optic Nerve and was aided by the US National
Security Agency, is alleged to have stored images between 2008 and 2010. In one
six-month period in 2008, images from 1.8m users were gathered.
The report
originated from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
It
suggested that sexually explicit content would be captured by the system.
"Unfortunately
… it would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations
to show intimate parts of their body to the other person," it read.
"Also,
the fact that the Yahoo software allows more than one person to view a webcam
stream without necessarily sending a reciprocal stream means that it appears
sometimes to be used for broadcasting pornography."
'Whole new
level'
"We
were not aware of nor would we condone this reported activity," Yahoo said
in an emailed statement.
"This
report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users'
privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world's
governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we
outlined in December.
"We
are committed to preserving our users' trust and security and continue our
efforts to expand encryption across all of our services."
A statement
from GCHQ said it would not comment on matters of intelligence, but added:
"All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and
policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary
and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the
secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners
and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.
"All
our operational processes rigorously support this position."
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