Every e-mail you write, every fax you send, is being
scrutinized by the government.
“Australia has become the first country openly to admit that it
takes part in a global electronic surveillance system that
intercepts the private and commercial international communications
of citizens and companies from its own and other countries.”
“Together with the giant American National Security Agency (NSA)
and its Canadian, British, and New Zealand counterparts, DSD
operates a network of giant, highly automated tracking stations
that illicitly pick up commercial satellite communications and
examine every fax, telex, e-mail, phone call, or computer data
message that the satellites carry.”
“The five signals intelligence agencies form the UKUSA pact.
They are bound together by a secret agreement signed in 1947 or
1948.”
“Now, due to a fast-growing UKUSA system called Echelon,
millions of messages are automatically intercepted every hour, and
checked according to criteria supplied by intelligence agencies and
governments in all five UKUSA countries. The intercepted signals
are passed through a computer system called the Dictionary, which
checks each new message or call against thousands of “collection”
requirements.”