Squeaky Dolphin

Squeaky Dolphin is a program of the British secret service GCHQ with the aim of collecting and analyzing data from social media networks. The program was made public through a January 27, 2014 NBC report based on the revelations of Edward Snowden .

Scope of the monitoring program

According to a GCHQ document dated August 2012, the program enables real-time monitoring of the following websites / networks:

YouTube video views
Use of the Like button on Facebook . Facebook claims to have been encrypting its data since then.
Blogspot / Blogger calls
Twitter . Twitter claims to have been encrypting its data since then.

The program can be supplemented by commercially available analysis software that evaluates the popularity of certain videos within a geographic region. The user interface of the software was developed by Splunk .

The documents published by NBC contain presentation slides classified as " top secret " for employees of the American secret service NSA . A note attached to these slides states that the program is “Not interested in individuals just broad trends!” (Not interested in individuals, but only in general trends). However, other documents published by Snowden provide evidence that the GCHQ also evaluated Twitter data to identify certain users and present them with propaganda content.

Web links

The presentation slides published by NBC (PDF, English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Larry Dignan: Snowden's Squeaky Dolphin leak: Brits spy on YouTube, Facebook behavior. ZDNet , January 28, 2014, accessed on January 28, 2014 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, Mark Schone, Glenn Greenwald: Snowden docs reveal British spies snooped on YouTube and Facebook , NBC News. January 27, 2014.
↑ Leo Kelion: BBC News - Snowden leaks: GCHQ 'spied on Facebook and YouTube' . Bbc.co.uk. January 28, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
↑ Matt Swider: YouTube, Facebook data caught up in UK's 'Squeaky Dolphin' spy program | News . TechRadar. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
↑ Splunk and the Squeaky Dolphin: when Big Data goes rogue | PC Pro blog . Pcpro.co.uk. January 28, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2014.

[zdnet-1] Larry Dignan: Snowden's Squeaky Dolphin leak: Brits spy on YouTube, Facebook behavior. ZDNet , January 28, 2014, accessed on January 28, 2014 .

[NBCJan14-2] Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole, Mark Schone, Glenn Greenwald: Snowden docs reveal British spies snooped on YouTube and Facebook , NBC News. January 27, 2014.

[3] Leo Kelion: BBC News - Snowden leaks: GCHQ 'spied on Facebook and YouTube' . Bbc.co.uk. January 28, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2014.

[4] Matt Swider: YouTube, Facebook data caught up in UK's 'Squeaky Dolphin' spy program | News . TechRadar. Retrieved January 30, 2014.

[5] Splunk and the Squeaky Dolphin: when Big Data goes rogue | PC Pro blog . Pcpro.co.uk. January 28, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2014.