Tempora is a security electronic surveillance program operated by the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Tempora uses intercepts on the fiber optic cables that make up the backbone of the internet to gain access to the internet users' personal data.
The existence of the program was revealed by Edward Snowden, a former American intelligence contractor who leaked information about the program to former Guardian journalist in May 2013, as part of his revelations of government-sponsored mass surveillance programs. Documents that Snowden acquired claimed that data collected by the Tempora program is shared with the US NSA.
Tempora is said to include recordings of telephone calls, the content of email messages, Facebook entries and the personal internet history of users.
