State spies can snoop on your use of Google, Facebook and Twitter: GCHQ is allowed to monitor citizens' use of sites without warrants because they are not based in the UK

Sites are classified as ‘external communications’

Not subject to rules that govern information posted on sites based in Britain

In these cases a targeted warrant is issued signed by a minister



Entries on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube uses information sent overseas

Data can be collected under a broader warrant not signed by a minister



GCHQ is allowed to spy on British citizens’ use of Facebook, Google and Twitter without an individual warrant because the firms are based overseas, it emerged last night.

To the fury of civil liberties groups, Charles Farr, the head of the Government’s Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, said the sites are classified as ‘external communications’.

This means that they are not subject to the strict rules that govern information posted on websites based in Britain.

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GCHQ is allowed to spy on British citizens' use of Facebook, Google and Twitter without an individual warrant

In these cases, a person’s activity will normally only be monitored if there is evidence of a link to terrorism or serious crime and a targeted warrant is issued, signed by a minister.

Mr Farr said entries on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and web searches on Google – as well as webmail services such as Hotmail and Yahoo – are considered external communications because users send information overseas.

Data can therefore be collected under a broader warrant not signed by a minister.

The policy was revealed in papers which form part of a continuing legal battle with campaign group Privacy International (PI). PI said it ‘patronises the British people’.

James Welch, of human rights group Liberty, said: ‘The security services consider that they’re entitled to read, listen to and analyse all our communications on Facebook, Google and other US-based platforms.

‘If there was any remaining doubt that our snooping laws need a radical overhaul, there can be no longer.’



GCHQ (pictured) said all its work 'is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework'

Mr Farr did not reveal the extent to which GCHQ uses its power to intercept these external communications.

But, in a statement, GCHQ said all its work ‘is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate’.



The rules governing the policy are contained within the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, passed by Labour in 2000.

The legal challenge, which has been brought by PI, Amnesty, Liberty and six other national civil liberties organisations, was a response to revelations made by Edward Snowden about the UK’s digital surveillance.

The details contained in Snowden’s cache of documents – stolen when he worked for the US National Security Agency – led to accusations from the Guardian and others of a programme of ‘mass surveillance’.

Mr Farr also revealed that, in its foreign intelligence operation, the NSA ‘touches’ approximately 1.6 per cent of the total data carried over the internet and selects 0.025 per cent of that for review.