One aspect of a series of presentations done in class today that I found intriguing was the intelligence agency known as "Five Eyes." "Five Eyes" is a set of five countries devoted to gathering intelligence, made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The types of intelligence they gather are vast, from defense intelligence to human intelligence. They were the developers of ECHELON, a surveillance system I was familiar with thanks to my father, a computer expert, who jokingly named one of our home's WiFi networks "ECHELON Spy Satellite." The "Five Eyes" also monitor the World Wide Web. A whistleblower I discussed in my own presentation, Edward Snowden, leaked that the members have been spying on one another's citizens and described the organization as "a supra-natural organization that does not answer to the laws of its own countries." In spite of controversy, it remains a powerful surveillance force.
I only had one question in regards to the organization: With the United Kingdom having been part of the European Union up until recently, when they threatened to walk out, did the EU have access to any of the UK's information? If the EU did have this information, and it retains this information after the UK's departure, could this information be weaponized and used against the countries involved - or maybe even the ones not related?
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