The member countries’ surveillance agencies work together to collect and analyze their citizens’ activities, which include both offline and online activities. The member countries of the Five Eyes Alliance are:
The coalition continued through the Cold War years and has become stronger in the years following the events of September 11, 2001, as well as other terrorist-related incidents. The Five Eyes Alliance (FVEY) is an intelligence alliance, the origins of which can be traced back to the time immediately following the end of World War II. However, the lesser partners do receive access to resources, equipment, and assistance from the NSA. While Five Eyes Alliance members have equal access to each other’s intelligence data, Nine Eyes and Fourteen Eyes Alliance members are not treated equally, many times furnishing intelligence reports and raw data, but not being entitled to receiving information in return.
What I’ll be focusing on in this article is the threat the Eyes pose to the privacy of citizens’ online activities, gathered by the Eyes through either ISP and VPN logs or the direct monitoring of a user’s connection. The alliance collects information from a large number of sources, including phone wiretaps, emails, and documents. These alliances work to collect and share mass surveillance information on the citizens of the alliance members, acting as a global surveillance system to monitor and record folks’ daily activities. These are references to international surveillance alliances between various countries around the globe. W hen you’re reading articles about how VPNs enhance your online security and prevent surveillance, you’ll likely see terms such as “ Five Eyes ,” “ Nine Eyes ” and “ Fourteen Eyes ” mentioned.