Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham. Photo by Reuters.

Spies are, right now, in an uncomfortable place - the spotlight.

This month's revelations by former US National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden have thrown a rare light on the international intelligence community. It is a worldwide web in which New Zealand appears to be an inextricable but willing player.

We are only ever likely to have a partial picture. But the bits of the puzzle that are known paint a fascinating and perhaps disturbing view of our new dystopic reality.

Prism: Alleged details about this top-secret United States National Security Agency (NSA) programme were leaked early this month by Mr Snowden. Prism is reported to extract personal data from nine major internet firms, giving the spy agency access to email, chat logs, any stored data, voice traffic, file transfers and social networking data. Mr Snowden fled to Hong Kong and then Russia and has applied for asylum in Ecuador. He has been charged in the US with unauthorised communication of national defence information.

Bluffdale: This US$1.7 billion (NZ$2.19 billion), 92,000sq m facility in Utah scrubland is the NSA's almost completed 5 zettabyte (5 billion terabyte) data storage centre. Due to open in October, it will house supercomputers to store data collected by surveillance programmes such as Prism. It reportedly has the capacity to store the cyberspace data of the entire US population for decades to come.

Five Eyes: Also known as Echelon, this is a surveillance network partnership between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A European Parliament report on Five Eyes concluded it was capable of intercepting satellite telecommunications and was accessing fibre-optic cables running under the Atlantic. It is believed that under the Five Eyes agreement, New Zealand's spy agencies routinely share information with the NSA. New Zealand's satellite communications interception station is at Waihopai, near Blenheim.

Government Communications Security Bureau: New Zealand's foreign spy agency, the GCSB, is set to get a significant extension of its powers. Opponents of the law amendments, including the New Zealand Law Society, are concerned the changes would enable the organisation to legally spy on New Zealanders. This enhanced role for the GCSB would be a major extension of state surveillance powers. The law changes are in response to a report showing 88 New Zealanders were victims of illegal spying by the GCSB. Secret Intelligence Service: The focus of the SIS is New Zealand's domestic security. Its director is Dr Warren Tucker. From 1984 to 1989, Dr Tucker was the GCSB's liaison officer to the NSA in Washington. From 1999 to 2007, he was director of the GCSB.

ThinThread: Last month it was reported a high-tech United States surveillance tool was sent to New Zealand for testing in 2000. The tool, called ThinThread, automatically intercepted phone, email and internet data without a warrant. The information came from former high-ranking NSA official William Binney, the designer of ThinThread.

FinFisher: This surveillance software is already used by 36 governments and could be headed here. Australia, the United States, Germany and Singapore are among nations using the UK-based company's software, which can collect internet and telecommunications. Asked whether the Government was considering using FinFisher, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister John Key told the Otago Daily Times ''It is the longstanding practice of the Prime Minister not to comment on security and intelligence matters, including what operational capabilities the agencies may or may not have''.

Palantir: This company mines data for some of the world's biggest spy agencies, and has set up shop in New Zealand. It was reported this month that Palantir sifts through data, matching phone records, internet activity, credit card use and GPS locations to find patterns. Mr Key is not commenting on whether Palantir is working for the Government. Job vacancies listed on the Palantir website this week include the position ''Embedded Analyst, Government: New Zealand''.