Five Eyes nations basically agree to not spy on each other's citizens and instead (potentially) agree to accept targets suggested by each other, and then feed b

Five Eyes nations basically agree to not spy on each other's citizens and instead (potentially) agree to accept targets suggested by each other, and then feed back the resulting intelligence. The text of the original agreement was released to the public recently but annoyingly you have to pay for it. This article[0] has an overview though; > The two nations – linked by common bonds of history, culture and language – agreed not to collect intelligence against each other Consider also the quote at the end of this article[1]: > France wouldn't be welcome in the "Five Eyes" alliance in any case, a former top US official told SPIEGEL ONLINE: "Germany joining would be a possibility, but not France -- France itself spies on the US far too aggressively for that." i.e. it is a prerequisite of joining the agreement that you stop any spying on other members' citizens. Basically, if you are American, then only the FBI (or DEA or whatever) can intercept your phone calls, and they can only do this with a warrant from an American court, they may however, get this warrant based on intelligence supplied by ASIS, (in a way) at Australia's "request". The main point is, Five Eyes is not a mechanism for those countries to side step their own internal legal requirements for surveillance - it is essentially the opposite. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/25/intelligence-deal-uk-us-released https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/25/intelligence-d... [1] https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-impedes-eu-privacy-efforts-despite-outrage-at-nsa-spying-a-930488.html https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-impedes-...