The lead surveillance agency in Canada monitors jillion of downloads made across the cyberspace , in whatThe Intercept calls“a trawl net lookup to identify extremists . ”
The tidings wasrevealed jointly by CBC New and The Intercept . The pair has discovered within top - secret document that the Communications Security Establishment — Canada ’s version of the NSA—”taps into Internet cables and break down records of up to 15 million downloads daily from popular websites commonly used to portion out video , pic , euphony , and other files . ”
The enterprise , which goes by the code name LEVITATION , is the first example from the leak Snowden file to show that Canada launches its own global surveillance programs .
Ina leaked ( top - secret ) PowerPoint presentation , from 2012 , the Communications Security Establishment explain how it monitors and shop details about downloads and uploads made via 102 different file - sharing websites . They include RapidShare , SendSpace , and the now un - operational MegaUpload . The document explicate that the Establishment finds 350 “ interesting download upshot ” each month — representing just 0.0001 per centime of the total collected datum .
Indeed , there ’s even a gag in the display about how the organisation used to monitor downloads gets clogged with downloads of Glee .
The Establishment claims that the surveillance is an attempt to sift through online transfers to find data that could be related to terrorism — like surety video recording and bomb - making tutorials . clear , though , it also collect rather a sight of info that isn entirely relate to such pursuits .
The systems used as part of LEVITATION apparently do not require cooperation from Indian file - sharing web site , alternatively find the data directly from intercept internet cables . These allow it to immobilise - point downloads to specific informatics addresses , in turn allowing it to identify “ suspicious ” user . Those users are then investigated further , with the Establishment probing repositories of intercepted cyberspace data shared with it by the NSA and British GCHQ .
In 2012 , the Establishment had a inclination of 2,200 files that put downloaders on a watch inclination . In the last two years many data file communion sites have toughened their security measure — and RapidShare and SendSpace have in fact blockade the spy in the process — but many stay susceptible to the taps .
And , we surmise , the Establishment remains eager to see what we ’re all download . [ The Intercept ]
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