EOTO 2- Five Eyes Alliance

The Five Eyes is an alliance made up of five countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The alliance was created in 1946 and had various surveillance and intelligence sharing agreements. They share information about things like terrorism, cyber threats, and other important stuff that could affect their countries' security. They also have a promise to never spy on each other. This alliance was a complete secret to the public until 2013. 

Why is this a risk to our privacy? There are major privacy concerns with this alliance. Citizens of these countries are at risk for their private information to be surveilled. This means everything we do online is being surveyed and shared between nations. This is something that happens because the countries share information on their own citizens with each other. This alliance allows for the invasion of our every move when we are online. There is a lack of laws protecting us citizens from this breach of our privacy, so although this alliance is sketchy to some people it is legal. 

In addition to the five eyes there are more countries who became involved in this arrangement. These are known as the nine eyes and the fourteen eyes. The nine eyes involve the original five plus Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Norway. The fourteen eyes include all of these countries including Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. There are also the forty-one eyes including all allied with Afghanistan. The purpose of these alliances is to enhance global surveillance abilities. But it puts all of its citizens at risk.

These alliances impact international relations because the nations communicate with each other on military matters which can lead to tensions between nations who are not a part of the alliance. There are differing opinions on this alliance and There are groups of people who advocate for more transparency with this alliance so we as citizens can have clearer guidelines on what is actually being surveyed and shared.