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"Vodafone has released a transparency report that details how 29 governments around the world snoop on its customers' data, with an unprecedented amount of detail over 88-pages and more than 40,000 words. But there's one thing that the report doesn't mention: Vodafone's alleged collaboration with the British spy agency, the GCHQ.\nLast summer, one of the first articles based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the GCHQ, the NSA's sister agency, has direct access to transatlantic fiber optic cables thanks to secret agreement with a series of companies defined as \"intercept partners.\"\nSee also: The 10 Biggest Revelations From Edward Snowden's Leaks\nThe secret program, codenamed Tempora, reportedly gives the GCHQ unfettered access to telephone calls and Internet data on millions of people. The GCHQ's partners were later revealed to be seven telecom companies, including Vodafone.\nIn Vodafone's full transparency report, in the chapter about the United Kingdom, the company mentions that intelligence agencies, including the GCHQ, have the power to issue warrants to access certain information and \"there is the possibility that this power is broad enough to permit government direct access to Vodafone\u2019s network.\"\nThis is a far cry from admitting to the allegations in the Snowden documents, but the company argues that its hands are tied by a law that prohibits them from disclosing any kind of collaboration with the British government.\nMoreover, only a small group of Vodafone employees would know about anything like that, and they would be barred by law to tell anyone \u2014 including other employees of the company \u2014 about the existence of such operations, according to a Vodafone spokesperson.\n\"There are obligations on the individual employees who manage these demands to keep what they are doing [...] absolutely secret,\" Matt Peacock, a Vodafone group spokesperson, told Mashable.\nBut civil liberties organizations think that either Vodafone or the U.K. government should come clean and be transparent about this type of direct access.\n\"We know that they are allowing GCHQ to have direct access,\" Mike Rispoli, a spokesperson for Privacy International, told Mashable, adding that his organization doesn't believe any law prevents the company from disclosing the existence of cable wieretaps. \"There's no reason why this information shouldn't be public, the public absolutely has the right to know what their governments are doing.\"\nPeacok, who said that Vodafone considers its customer's data \"basically sacred,\" declined to confirm or deny whether the GCHQ has this type of direct access to Vodafone's network. And, theoretically, spy agencies could very well tap fiber optic cables without telecom companies's knowledge.\nAnd it's not just an issue in the U.K. Vodafone reveals that there are six countries that compel the company to give direct access to its network, potentially allowing governments to freely access customer's data without warrants, and without the company knowing about it.\n\"These pipes exist, the direct access model exists,\" Vodafone's group privacy officer, Stephen Deadman, told the Guardian.\nVodafone is calling for those countries to end these practices, but it is also declining to name the six countries out of legal obligation not to disclose this information, and because its employees in those countries might face retaliation if the company discloses information that it is legally bound to keep under wraps.\n\"We have boots on the ground,\" Peacock said, before adding that it's easier for other companies to be transparent. \"Not that I'm being disrespectful, but it is very different for a company like Google or Facebook, because they're issuing these reports when their people are safe in California. My friends are not safe in California.\"\nPrivacy advocates applauded Vodafone for its unusually detailed transparency report, and for the company's call against surveillance conducted with direct access means. But they also warned that these practices need to end because they're extraordinarily invasive.\n\"That sort of access is a backdoor into our private lives and it's really offensive not only to our privacy rights, it chills free expression,\" Peter Micek, a policy counsel at Access, said.\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/06/06/vodafones-transparency-report-missing/>