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back to article Duncan Campbell: GCHQ and me and a roomful of Reg readers

Veteran investigative journalist Duncan Campbell detailed his long time entanglements with GCHQ and the Echelon project in a long-form article in The Intercept yesterday – but a select group of Register readers heard the full story from the man himself, last year. Duncan used his Register Christmas Lecture to give a deep dive …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Balanced values?

    >> Let's face it though, after 40 years of revelations from Duncan the biggest mystery might be that

    >> people are still so surprised by how wide-spread state sponsored eavesdropping is.

    Rather less surprising is how media, dependent on advertising from commercial organizations, are apparently much less concerned by how widespread commercially sponsored eavesdropping is.

    11 1 Reply
    1. elDog
      Reply Icon

      Re: Balanced values?

      And the arm-twisting that happens all the time when a news outlet has a story but the "agencies" don't want it published.I think this is fairly common. It is a rare publisher who would risk punishment from a government, especially since the publisher and the powers-that-be frequent the same cocktail party circuit.

      4 0 Reply
      1. That Lewis Page (Written by Reg staff)
        Reply Icon

        Re: Re: Balanced values?

        Arm-twisting wasn't so bad on this one. The one we had trouble with was this:

        http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/03/revealed_beyond_top_secret_british_intelligence_middleeast_internet_spy_base/

        Published it anyway of course.

        11 0 Reply
        1. Richard Taylor 2
          Reply Icon
          Facepalm

          Re: Balanced values?

          Sorry Lewis - URL cut in parts (but maybe its a dark agency wot dun it) - would this help

          [snip long URL - the one in Lewis's post is now working - mod.]

          and if this gets contracted I am going back to the double foil treatment - or I might just blame the way that the Reg formats things :-)

          0 1 Reply
        2. elDog
          Reply Icon

          Re: Balanced values?

          Yes, I remember and admired that page. Perhaps the coverts aren't so bad after all, as long as you haven't dissed Vlad and then there will be hell to pay.

          3 0 Reply
        3. PleebSmash
          Reply Icon
          Big Brother

          Re: Balanced values?

          @Lewis @Richard, you need to select the link by clicking near the H and dragging your cursor down to select the whole line. It's still there, just cut off. Or you could make a proper link with HTML syntax.

          @Lewis let's get the story of that arm twisting!

          1 0 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Balanced values?

            Attempt at a proper link ..

            There is actually a lot you CAN do, but you must place that in context of the threat. A simple, but good start for most people is the realisation that there really is no such thing as a free service, and that your behaviour can affect others. Using Gmail, for instance, is paid for with the personal details that they hoover up by scanning your email and online activity, but it's worse: you also expose your correspondents to this scanning (as your inbox is scanned), and they never gave Google permission for that.

            If you use WhatsApp, you give away the details of your friends (as the first thing it does is copying your address book to a US server), which is a neat end run around legislation which only compels a company to tell you if it's asking you for details, but not if it can get them from your friends - a classic example of how something may be legal, but nor right.

            If you use FB, well, you may want to really READ those Terms & Conditions..

            0 0 Reply
  2. Barry Rueger

    Clarification needed

    Speaking on behalf of an awful lot of people on the West Coast of Canada, I need to ask:

    When you say “a gangly fellow with a stutter who loved long-distance running and mushrooms,” do you mean mushrooms, or MUSHROOMS......

    0 0 Reply
  3. Antonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Flash! AAAAHHRRGrrrrggggggggggggrrrrrrr....... It's inexcusable!

    Are you seriously expecting us to watch that rootkit you've embedded into an article about GCHQ/Echelon Reg?

    1 0 Reply
    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Flash! AAAAHHRRGrrrrggggggggggggrrrrrrr....... It's inexcusable!

      See the link in the comments or at the end of the article for a HTML5 vid link.

      C.

      1 0 Reply
  4. Matt Fowler
    Alert

    also on The Register's own youtube channel

    This video is also up on Youtube on El Reg's very own Youtube channel - where you can see it through the joys of HTML5 Video, with no Flash requirement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJfFOJVRMNU

    0 0 Reply
    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: also on The Register's own youtube channel

      Thanks, Matt. I've added a link to the story.

      C.

      0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One of my former college lecturers once worked for one of the UK communications equipment manufacturers. He said that he was once taken to London and asked how the Russians were intercepting some microwave communications, he pointed out that there was a small cabin on the roof of the Russian embassy and they were probably intercepting using the Fresnel zone.

    1 0 Reply
  6. Barry Mahon

    Good on ye Dunc

    After 40+ years the only thing one can say is that he has balls.... and he needs them. I first heard him speak about 30 years ago, and was so impressed I've followed him ever since.

    The most upsetting part is that despite his fortitude and the revelations it just gets worse, Snowden reveals just how bad.

    There was a young guy in NZ who was on the Echelon thing too, got published finally by a "grey power" outfit after the spooks tried to lock him up.

    I suppose the only saving grace is that the ECJ threw out the EU's attempt to make it even worser!!

    1 0 Reply
  7. Picky
    Unhappy

    Great video -- oh oh knocking at the door

    Good talk .. must answer - oops gotta go ....

    0 0 Reply

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