The latest reports based on files leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst Edward Snowden have information in three areas.

1. INDEPENDENCE

The documents suggest that some of New Zealand's spying operations were carried out within an American system.

Your views on New Zealand spying Share your stories, photos and videos. Contribute

A 2009 report by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) explains how the Waihopai base was brought into the American xkeyscore system.

According to the minutes of a June 2009 meeting at the NSA headquarters, a GCSB officer reported that a fifth of the Kiwi analysts at the time did not have access to key NSA databases.

"This is a particularly significant issue for GCSB," she is reported to have said, "as they provide NSA with NZL [New Zealand] data which they have traditionally accessed via NSA tool/databases."

That meant some GCSB analysts were "unable to query or access NZL data".

An NSA memo reportedly says New Zealand provides "valuable access not otherwise available to satisfy US intelligence requirement."

And a 2011 British memo says the GCSB gave its spies access to "strong selected data and full-take feed" from its interceptions.

The extent to which New Zealand shared information with its 'Five Eyes' partner nations raises questions about its claims to having an "independent foreign policy". This was a key boast in its successful bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations security council.



LEAKS: Edward Snowden (left) leaked a series of documents to Glenn Greenwald, a journalist who has set up The Intercept

2. 'FULL TAKE COLLECTION'

According to The Intercept, the documents suggest New Zealand ramped up its spying in 2009. Previously, it kept only some of the information it intercepted on specific targets.

But a 2009 report suggests engineers for the GCSB upgraded its systems so that it could keep everything that it intercepted.

A GCSB report suggests American experts visited in March 2009 to help bring the New Zealand agency up to date so that it could implement xkeyscore, the NSA's tool for analysing vast amounts of intercepted material.

3. SPYING ON OUR NEIGHBOURS

The files suggest New Zealand was spying on neighbouring Pacific Island nations as part of its responsibilities as a member of the 'Five Eyes' intelligence sharing community. The Solomon Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Nauru and Samoa are among those New Zealand is said to have spied on.



(Graphic: Fairfax NZ)

A July 2009 report details how a new undersea cable laid in the Pacific was making it more difficult for the GCSB to intercept data in and out of Samoa.

The report included a map showing how spies had tracked the laying of the cable between American Samoa and Samoa.

Similar suggestions of New Zealand spying on Pacific countries have been aired before.

In 1996, Nicky Hager's Secret Power book said New Zealand listened in to satellite and radio communications in the South Pacific. In 2006, a secret report by the GCSB dating to the 1980s emerged, revealing that New Zealand had spied on the United Nations and many countries, including Japan, France and Pacific nations. In 2010, cables published by Wikileaks suggested the Waihopai base was used to snoop on the 2000 and 2006 Fiji coups.

The GCSB spying on communications in the Pacific raises questions about the legality of its actions. The agency is not allowed to spy on New Zealand citizens. Many people living in Pacific Island nations are New Zealanders.

It emerged in 2013 that up to 88 New Zealanders were illegally spied on by the GCSB for a decade.