For anyone who hasn't heard of it before - PROJECT ECHELON is a automated system run from GCHQ which is used to intercept and analyse personal and commercial correspondence from various local and international sources (mostly NSA). It's a part of the UK intelligence system and has been running for nearly 50 years now (but some estimates put it developed as far back as 1947) although the UK government and the NSA have always denied its existence. The Snowdon leaks confirmed it's existence, purpose and that it is directly funded by the NSA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
Right now one of the main investigative journalists (Duncan Campbell - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunc...l_(journalist)) who's been working on uncovering ECHELON for the last 30years is doing a series of articles and documentaries to present the majority of his findings and appears to have the backing of senior UK intelligence chiefs. Hopefully this means we can actually get a proper look into how a modern nation manages its automated spy systems for once.
ECHELON was confirmed to still be running in 2010, it's current status is unknown.
The first article in the series is available here
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2...eavesdroppers/