How the Five Eyes Watch Us 

Directly after WW2, in the year 1946, a group of five English speaking nations joined forces to create agreements on intelligence sharing and surveillance with the goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world.  However, in the modern day, many worry that the sharing of data between these nations has created an unregulated loophole that can be used to exploit the privacy of ordinary citizens.  

The bilateral agreements created between the five nations in 1946 are commonly called the United Kingdom-United States Communication Intelligence Act (UKUSA).  However, the majority of the documents outlining the parameters of this agreement are kept secret from the general public, creating an air of mystery and inviting suspicion from many.

There are many conspiracies surrounding the Five Eyes

The members of the Five Eyes were especially active in exchanging information during the Cold War, when each of the five nations sought to protect themselves from the Soviet Union and limit its control.  In an age when anyone identifying as a Communist was considered a threat to the free world, these five governments made it a priority to monitor suspected individuals and to notify each other of their movements abroad.  

The five countries of the Five Eyes are the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.  By default, these five countries share information with each other, effectively sidestepping privacy laws by having one government expose or incriminate the citizens of another government for them. 

NATO Headquarters

In addition to the members of the Five Eyes, these nations also share intel with members of the Nine Eyes (including Denmark, Norway, France, and the Netherlands) and the Fourteen Eyes (which includes Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, and Spain.)  Many of these nations began exchanging information with the Five Eyes to encourage good relations with their fellow NATO partners and to counter threats from countries outside of or opposed to NATO.  

Although the Five Eyes were organized in the hopes of preventing a repeat of the atrocities that occurred under the Axis Powers during the Second World War, there is currently no international oversight to keep the Five Eyes from seeing where they shouldn’t.  

In the modern day, the Five Eyes and their “plus“ countries share intel with the objective of staying one step ahead of China and Russia, two powerful countries that have long been considered as threats to the Western world.  

Beyond the potential threat of the Five Eyes, it’s also important to acknowledge the enduring legacy of “Total Information Awareness” in America.  This program, later renamed to “Terrorism Information Awareness, was originally designed to correlate details about suspected individuals in order to predict and prevent terrorist acts.  This program was defunded and suspended in 2003, but the capacity of the government to supervise every aspect of our lives is as intact as ever.  

It would be fair to say that the generations of people alive today have benefited from technology more than any others before us.  Yet it has also become very apparent that we are more monitored than any other group of people that have ever walked the earth.  Beware of every step you take, because you are being watched by more eyes than you could ever realize.  

Additional credit to https://www.dni.gov/index.php/ncsc-how-we-work/217-about/organization/icig-pages/2660-icig-fiorc