The newly obtained documents set out Blighty‘s secret do‘s and don‘ts for monitoring populations. The files acknowledge that chapter and verse on the lives of people „of no security interest“ lie within the spooks‘ secret databases – and analysts and agents are simply told to avoid pulling up their information.

If you‘re the kind of person who thinks spies aren‘t interested in normal citizens, and thus they have nothing to worry about, guess again: your information is in the UK government‘s hands, and you are just a few keystrokes away. And, it appears, some Brit spies have no problem looking up their families, colleagues and even themselves for trivialities such as sending birthday cards.