Tapping undersea cables is accomplished with the USS Jimmy Carter, unless they've since built another one. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter_(SSN-23)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jimmy_Carter_(SSN-23)</a>
as someone reliant on undersea cables for connectivity, there have been several suspicious/unexpected cable breaks that could have been used to install interception equipment over the years.<p>that is, if they even bother to install it on the cable itself and don't just force the endpoints to have their black boxes installed.
the cables are owned by the companies that pay for them - like BT, AT&T, Level Three etc. sometimes they sell them, especially if they go bankrupt<p>tapping a fibre isn't easy, you need a special submarine for that. the U.S. did that in the 1970s to the soviets. but it is much easier if the companies give you direct access at the landing station, which appears to be the case for the NSA
If we can't sue the NSA, can we sue this provider directly. Looks like there is more than enough info publicly available to hold them accountable and they can't invoke the state secrets defense. Everyone whose data crosses those cables is a potential plaintiff.
I hate the misuse of the term "data mining" that plagues these surveillance stories.<p>On the other hand, it's forgivable -- based on the plain meaning of the word "mining", it's often a better fit than the "predictive modeling/machine learning" meanings the term actually has.