science

Karma Police (surveillance programme)

Karma Police (surveillance programme) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karma Police (surveillance programme) rather than just read about it. In short: Karma Police (usually capitalised as KARMA POLICE) is the code name for an Internet mass surveillance and data collection programme operated by the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). In 2015, documents obtained by The Intercept from U.S.

Key takeaways

Karma Police (surveillance programme) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Karma Police (surveillance programme) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Karma Police (surveillance programme) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karma Police (usually capitalised as KARMA POLICE) is the code name for an Internet mass surveillance and data collection programme operated by the United Kingdom's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). In 2015, documents obtained by The Intercept from U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that GCHQ had carried out the KARMA POLICE operation since about 2008. The KARMA POLICE operation swept up the IP address of Internet users visiting websites. The program was established with no public scrutiny or oversight. KARMA POLICE is a powerful spying tool in conjunction with other GCHQ programs, because IP addresses could be cross-referenced with other data. The goal of the program, according to the documents, was "either (a) a web browsing profile for every visible user on the internet, or (b) a user profile for every visible website on the internet." Karma Police was apparently named after the Radiohead song "Karma Police", which includes the lyric "This is what you’ll get when you mess with us".

See also Tempora – another programme revealed by Snowden Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group – another GCHQ programme Website visitor tracking Web browsing history Web analytics Web mining Internet privacy Mass surveillance in the United Kingdom

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karma Police (surveillance programme)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karma Police (surveillance programme) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karma Police (surveillance programme) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karma Police (surveillance programme) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karma Police (surveillance programme)

In research: Karma Police (surveillance programme) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karma Police (surveillance programme) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karma Police (surveillance programme) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics GCHQ operations, Intelligence agency programmes revealed by Edward Snowden, Internet in the United Kingdom, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karma Police (surveillance programme) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Karma Police (surveillance programme) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karma Police (surveillance programme) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Karma Police (surveillance programme) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Karma Police (surveillance programme) in simple terms?

Why does Karma Police (surveillance programme) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karma Police (surveillance programme)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karma Police (surveillance programme).