Canadian intelligence is conducting massive internet surveillance, according to a leaked report by US defector Edward Snowden.

According to the report, Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) captures and analyzes up to 15 million data files per day as part of a global surveillance system known as Levitation.

Using this system, Canada conducts massive surveillance of internet traffic to and from countries such as the United States, Britain, Brazil, Germany, Spain and Portugal, says The report. Radio-Canada News and online newspaper The interception have accessed.

Protests in Brazil

Brazilian authorities, who in 2013 harshly criticized the United States after Snowden revealed that the Americans had wiretapped President Dilma Rousseff, reacted strongly to Canadian intelligence activities.

– Brazil distances itself from any unauthorized espionage against foreign officials, says a statement from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The CSE is the equivalent of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and monitors all forms of data and telecommunications. The intelligence agency does not have the ability to spy on Canadian citizens or businesses.

Cooperation with the United States

In 1941, Canada entered into formal intelligence cooperation with the United States, and in 1948 also joined the so-called UKUSA intelligence cooperation agreement to which Britain, Australia and New Zealand are also participating.

Under the agreement, Canada is committed to conducting signals intelligence (Sigint) activities on behalf of the United States.

In addition, over the years, CSE has operated communications intelligence (Comint) and electronic intelligence (Elint), with wiretapping of foreign embassies in Ottawa being one of its tasks.

CSE is also believed to have been heavily involved in NATO’s at-sea surveillance systems.