Optic Nerve would automatically collect one screengrab every five minutes, and the agencies worried about how they could keep the juicy ones out of the hands of their employees.
GCHQ Peered Into Millions Of Yahoo Video Chats
February 28, 2014

Via The Inquirer:

UK SPY AGENCY Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) broke into millions of people's Yahoo accounts, watched their webcam chats and took photos of participants.

The ugly tale comes from the Guardian and is part of a series of revelations by government surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Guardian reported that a system called Optic Nerve was in operation between 2008 and 2012 and had the remit of intercepting and storing webcam images from Yahoo. The fruits of the Optic Nerve network is data that represents the combined work of the US National Security Agency and the GHCQ.

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