GCHQ named its web-tracking system after “Karma Police”

GCHQ, Britain's eavesdropping agency, has been running a system to profile people's web browsing under the code name KARMA POLICE. Ryan Gallagher reports it in The Intercept, from documents leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The documents never say why the system was named after a Radiohead song. “Karma Police” is on OK Computer, from 1997, and Gallagher can only suggest that the spies may have been fans.

In GCHQ's own words the aim was a web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet, or a user profile for every visible website. It was planned in 2007 and 2008 and launched about seven years ago, without public debate. GCHQ says it does not comment on intelligence matters.

Its test case, in 2009, was radio. GCHQ took nearly seven million records from three months to follow the listening habits of more than 200,000 people in 185 countries who listened to radio online.