Edward Snowden and related revelations
In June 2013, The Guardian newspaper, using documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden, revealed the existence of an operation codenamed Tempora, whereby GCHQ is able to tap into data which flows along undersea cables and then store it for up to 30 days, to assess and analyse it. The article refers to a three-year trial set up at GCHQ Bude which, by mid 2011, was probing more than 200 internet connections.
A further Guardian report in December 2013 stated that eavesdropping efforts to target charities, German government buildings, the Israeli Prime Minister, and an EU commissioner centred on activities run from GCHQ Bude.
GCHQ Bude was featured extensively in the 3 September 2014 BBC Two Horizon television programme: 'Inside the Dark Web'. This programme estimated that 25% of all internet traffic travels through Cornwall, England. Dr Joss Wright of the University of Oxford Internet Institute explained how mirror images of the signals running down submarine Ethernet cables are used to gather and analyse data. The programme claimed that this procedure involves an optical tap device which is inserted at the submarine cable repeater station. A second copy of the data then travels to GCHQ, while the original carries on its intended journey. GCHQ, it was claimed, then have three days to replay the data. It was stated that everything that comes across the internet can theoretically be accessed; including emails, websites, BitTorrent downloads, films that have been watched, etc. Wright added that internal documents show that in 2011, 200 10-gigabit cables coming into Cornwall were being tapped by GCHQ. Dr Wright said that the entire digitised contents of the British Library could be transferred down that set of cables in about 40 seconds. On the same programme, Tim Berners-Lee explained how huge volumes of data are analysed by GCHQ computer programmes to identify trends of communication which are deemed to require further examination
On 20 November 2014, Channel 4 News broadcast an investigation prepared in collaboration with German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). This report revealed that a leading UK communications company (Cable & Wireless, now Vodafone) cooperated with GCHQ to allow access to data, including that carried by a rival Indian telecommunications company. The broadcast detailed an operation centred on fibre-optic cables surfacing at Porthcurno beach and Sennen Cove in Cornwall, with data travelling to a nearby cable landing station at Skewjack Farm, and then onwards to GCHQ Bude.