Anti-spying activists take telco complaint to the OECD

The campaign group Privacy International sued the UK government in July over intelligence agency GCHQ’s tapping of the world’s communications. However, it hit a brick wall in that case, so now the group has taken the issue to a higher authority.

Privacy International said that it had filed complaints to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) about the telecoms operators that have worked a little more closely than necessary with GCHQ, a major National Security Agency partner. The telcos in question are BT, Verizon Enterprise, Vodafone Cable, Viatel, Level3 and Interoute, all of which operate the fat undersea cables that GCHQ is so fond of tapping (after all, they do mostly pass by the UK). According to Privacy International, the firms may have broken OECD guidelines around the respect of the rights to privacy and freedom of expression.