Yahoo webcam images were intercepted and stored by UK and US surveillance

GCHQ documents dated between 2008 and 2010 were provided by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

17:48 28 February 2014

The documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that between 2008 and 2010, British surveillance agency GCHQ and the United States National Security Agency intercepted and collected a substantial quantity of webcam images - of which some were sexually explicit – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo users account globally. 

The documents claim that the surveillance programme – codenamed Optic Nerve – captured one image every five minutes from randomly selected Yahoo webcam chats.

A spokeswoman for Yahoo said: “We were not aware of nor would we condone this reported activity. This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users’ privacy that is completely unacceptable and we strongly call on the world’s governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December.

“We are committed to preserving our users’ trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services.”

In a statement, GCHQ countered the claims without firmly stating if they were true or false: “It is a long-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from the secretary of state, the interception and intelligence services commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.”