New Zealand spying on neighboring countries with surveillance technology

New Zealand is the smallest part of the Five Eyes Defeat, the alliance of five nations looking to create a global surveillance network, by spying on their own citizens and neighboring countries.
In a new report from The Intercept, New Zealand’s surveillance network actually pushes into dozens of small countries, including French owned territories in the Asia-Pacific region. Tuvalu, Nauru, Kiribati, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga and France’s overseas territories New Caledonia and French Polynesia are all under surveillance.
New Zealand has been able to grab phone, internet and text communications in government departments, organizations and internet service providers. It sends all of the surveillance through the XKEYSCORE network, allowing the NSA, GCHQ and other intelligence organizations to check it.
Many of the countries named are allies with New Zealand and unwary of the mass surveillance happening in the country. It is not the first time rumors of New Zealand spying on its neighbors has occurred, with previous reports claiming New Zealand were looking at tapping into the underwater cables connecting many of these countries to the internet.

In fear of having cables tapped, some countries are already parting ways with the Five Eyes Defeat, including Brazil who cut off all communications with the United States last year. Germany, China and Russia are all looking into separation from the surveillance network.
New Zealand have not commented on the new report, but Prime Minister John Key did say the Edward Snowden reports on mass surveillance were probably right, although he couldn’t identity if XKEYSCORE was a program used by the country’s intelligence agency.