Echelon: It can see us, but not as clearly as we thought

The almost mythical Anglo-American global listening system - Echelon - really does exist, it really does listen to phone conversations, and it really does read your emails and faxes.

According to a preliminary report released today by a committee of MEPs, Echelon snoops on private and business communications, and not military ones as originally suspected, and everyone is now being advised to encrypt all emails as a safeguard.

In spite of the fear that any unencrypted private communications can be intercepted and read, the report does admit there is no evidence to suggest Britain and the US have abused information gained.

It also admits that Echelon is not as powerful as was feared.

Some suggested specific keywords in telephone conversations could be picked up, and used to alert the US National Security Agency (NSA). But the reality is not quite so dramatic, according to the 120-page document.

Gerhard Schmid, vice president of the EU parliament, said: "We have closely investigated what is technically possible... not everything can be listened to."

Schmid added: "The system only recognises voices during a telephone conversation, not words. As far as that is concerned, work obviously still needs to be done."

Listening to satellite communication forms the core of Echelon, and the UK and the US only have restricted access to cable-based communications. "For this, direct access to the cable is necessary," Schmid explained.

He added: " These countries only have this if the endpoint of the cable is on their territory."

So all communications in the UK can be 'listened to', but in Germany, for example, national calls cannot be snooped on, and for international calls, the cable carrying the call would have to run across territory belonging to the UK for Echelon to have access.

Also, according to the report, the UK and US secret services only have limited access to radio communication. A global listening system can only access short wave radio. For all other types of radio the listening station can be no more than 100 kilometres away.

However, all this is somewhat problematic with regard to the European Convention on Human Rights. It states that listening measures are only allowed under specific conditions.

Schmid said: "If the civilian communication of a country is being listened to by a foreign secret service, the relevant government has a legal responsibility."

However, he added he could not pinpoint a direct violation of the convention. "There is only a problem if, for example, the Americans are listening to civilian conversations in Germany and the German government is aware of the measures."

Amendments can be submitted in the next two weeks. In these, the US, among others, will be asked to sign the additional statement to the international pact concerning civilian and political rights, in order to allow individual complaints about the United States to be made to the Human Rights Committee.

The EU countries should therefore check that their legislation concerning the work of intelligence services conforms to fundamental rights. Schmid estimated that the resolution will be put to the vote at the plenum of the EU parliament in September.

by Irene Binial, reporter, silicon.de