Tim Mocan
Updated on: October 22, 2024
Fact-checked by Kate Davidson
If you care about your privacy, you should be worried about the 5 Eyes Alliance. Living in a country that’s part of the 5 Eyes Alliance (or in a country that neighbors a 5 Eyes country) means all your online activities are monitored, including your search engine queries, your emails, and your video and audio calls.
I cover everything you need to know about the 5 Eyes Alliance in this guide. I discuss which countries are part of the 5 Eyes Alliance, what other countries they collaborate with, what this means for your privacy, and what steps you can take to protect your online privacy from 5 Eyes surveillance.
Pro Tip: The best way to protect your privacy from 5 Eyes surveillance is via a VPN, which encrypts your traffic and hides your IP address. The best option is ExpressVPN — it doesn’t keep any logs, and its no-logs policy has been proven true in security audits and via a server seizure. It also stops ad trackers from monitoring your online preferences, all of its servers run on RAM (ensuring every reset wipes everything), and it’s not headquartered in a 5 Eyes country.
Editors’ Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
What Is the 5 Eyes Alliance?
The 5 Eyes Alliance is a cooperative intelligence network consisting of 5 countries: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The 5 Eyes Alliance is also often abbreviated as FVEY. All countries cooperate in signals intelligence, which is a type of intelligence-gathering that relies on intercepting “signals.” This phrasing includes both face-to-face conversations between people, and any type of electronic signals that are not used in face-to-face communication.
The 5 Eyes Alliance’s origins go back to the early 1940s, when secret meetings between British and US code-breakers used to take place. After that, the 5 Eyes Alliance followed this timeline:
- 1941. The Atlantic Charter takes place, which laid out British and US plans in the post-war world.
- 1943. The Britain-United States of America (BRUSA) agreement is signed by the UK and the US, which was meant to facilitate cooperation between the US War Department and the Government Code & Cypher School (GCHQ), one of the UK’s main intelligence agencies.
- 1946. The US and the UK signed the UKUSA Agreement, which officiated the intelligence-sharing methods the two countries decided on in the BRUSA agreement.
- 1955. The UKUSA Agreement is updated to officially recognize Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as “UKUSA-collaborating Commonwealth countries.” The term “Five Eyes” was adopted as an easier alternative to saying “AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US EYES ONLY.”
Do Other Countries Collaborate With the 5 Eyes Alliance?
Yes. In addition to Japan, the 5 Eyes Alliance has also collaborated with intelligence agencies from Israel, Germany, and France. The press in India and South Korea also reported that the 5 Eyes countries considered inviting these two countries to join their intelligence network as well. Singapore was also revealed to have collaborated with 5 Eyes countries in Edward Snowden’s leaks — plus, the country hosted secret meetings between senior officials from major intelligence agencies.
5 Eyes countries have also collaborated with Japan, South Korea, and France to gain a better understanding of North Korea’s military operations. And the alliance has shared intelligence data with Japan, Germany, and France to better counter China’s cyber threats.
Will Japan Join the 5 Eyes Alliance?
This might happen in the near future. Japan has often collaborated with the 5 Eyes Alliance over the years, and its officials have expressed interest in joining the intelligence network. The main reason the 5 Eyes countries are looking to accept Japan into their intelligence network is due to increased tensions with China — Japan is on the “frontline” with China, so it could provide the 5 Eyes nations with vital intelligence.
What Is the 9 Eyes Alliance?
The 9 Eyes Alliance is an expansion of the 5 Eyes Alliance, which includes additional countries from Europe:
- Denmark.
- France.
- The Netherlands.
- Norway.
It’s worth noting that the 5 Eyes countries have access to all information collected by 9 Eyes countries. However, the additional four countries in the 9 Eyes alliance are not privy to all intelligence gathered by 5 Eyes countries.
What Is the 14 Eyes Alliance?
The 14 Eyes Alliance includes all of the 9 Eyes countries, and also adds:
- Belgium.
- Germany.
- Italy.
- Spain.
- Sweden.
The 14 Eyes Alliance is also known as SSEUR or SIGINT Seniors Europe. While all the 14 Eyes countries share intelligence among them, there is data that only 5 Eyes countries have access to.
Is the 5 Eyes Alliance Bad for Your Privacy?
Yes, because 5 Eyes countries can collect and access data about your internet activities. This includes your IP address and pretty much everything you do over the web — browsing websites, search engine history, sending and receiving emails, making audio and video calls, and sharing files. Intelligence agencies have access to such data via internet service providers (ISPs), third-party surveillance, and web trackers.
There’s also a lack of transparency when it comes to the 5 Eyes Alliance. Even though one of the core principles of the alliance is that member countries don’t spy on each other, the Snowden leaks revealed that that’s actually not the case — leaked 5 Eyes documents have shown that 5 Eyes countries are spying on each other’s citizens and sharing the data among themselves.
All of this basically means you get zero privacy when you use the internet — anything you do might be monitored and logged by a third party. Plus, this could even impact freedom of speech to a certain extent, as mass online surveillance might make people less likely to discuss certain topics on the web (like politics or activism, for example).
How to Protect Your Privacy From the 5 Eyes Alliance
I put together a list of simple tips that anyone can try out to protect their privacy from 5 Eyes surveillance. You can use any of the tips (or all of them) right now. You don’t need any kind of training, and you also don’t need to be tech-savvy to protect your data.
1. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
A VPN is an online service that encrypts your traffic and hides your IP address. It’s basically an app that you download and install on your device, which you then use to connect to a VPN server (the server can be located in pretty much any country). You then use the VPN server to access websites, download and share files, and communicate with other people.
When a VPN encrypts your internet traffic, that basically means it makes it 100% unreadable. Your ISP or surveillance agencies won’t be able to monitor it to see what you do online. If someone were to try and spy on your VPN-encrypted web traffic, they’d only see gibberish (basically, a random string of numbers, letters, and special characters).
When you use the VPN server to surf the web, you’ll also use the server’s IP address to interact with websites and web apps. So any site or web service you use will only see the VPN’s IP address, while your real IP address remains hidden.
Also, as long as you use a good VPN, you won’t need to worry about the provider logging your IP address and web traffic and sharing them with third parties. That’s because good VPN providers have strict no-logs policies that clearly state they don’t log any user data.
There are tons of great VPNs on the market, but my personal favorite for avoiding surveillance is ExpressVPN. It has a no-logs policy that has been proven true in several security audits and also a server seizure (Turkish authorities seized one of its servers and weren’t able to find any user data on it). The provider also only uses RAM-only servers, ensuring that every server reset wipes all data.
What’s more, ExpressVPN has a security tool that stops web trackers from collecting information about your web browsing and preferences. And even better, the company is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, which is a privacy-friendly country that’s outside the jurisdiction of the 5 Eyes Alliance.
2. Use Secure Communication Tools
I recommend only using messaging services that provide end-to-end encryption. This way, messages can only be read by you and the intended recipient. They’re not visible to the messaging platform, so it can’t be compelled by intelligence agencies to hand data over.
I personally recommend using Signal — it secures all messages and audio and video calls with end-to-end encryption, it doesn’t collect your IP address or any other personal data, and it’s 100% open-source (anyone can check the code to make sure the app can’t compromise user privacy).
In addition, you should only use privacy-focused email providers. Proton Mail is a really good choice — it automatically encrypts all your emails, so the provider can’t see their contents. Proton Mail is also open-source and audited, it blocks email trackers, and it’s based in a privacy-friendly country (Switzerland).
3. Use Private Web Browsers
It’s best to avoid browsers like Chrome, which collect private information and user browsing data and share it with third parties. Instead, I recommend trying:
- Brave. It’s open-source, it collects less data than Chrome, and it uses the Chromium browser engine, which means it works with the same extensions that work on Chrome.
- Vivaldi. It also runs on Chromium, it doesn’t have access to your browsing history, and it blocks sites and trackers from monitoring your online preferences.
- LlibreWolf. This is a custom version of Firefox that’s heavily focused on privacy. It comes with uBlock Origin pre-installed (a really good privacy extension), it’s open-source, it doesn’t collect any user data, and it removes tracking elements from URLs.
You could also try the Tor browser — it routes your traffic through the Tor network, which hides your real IP behind three Tor servers (so, it also encrypts your traffic three times). If you plan on using Tor, though, make sure to connect to a VPN first, like ExpressVPN. This way, if the Tor network suffers any privacy issues the VPN will still protect your real IP and traffic.
While Tor is generally safe to use, user privacy could still be compromised via correlation attacks (granted, they are very complicated to perform). Also, keep in mind that Tor servers are generally run by volunteers, which means that anyone could set up their own Tor servers — including government agents. And any Tor traffic going through government-operated servers could be monitored.
4. Use Privacy-Focused Search Engines
Google is arguably the most popular search engine, but it’s really bad for privacy — it collects your search queries and IP address, and uses this data to display customized search results and personalized ads. For some people this might be convenient, but if you’re focused on privacy it’s a huge concern.
Luckily, there are some more privacy-focused search engine alternatives out there. Startpage is my personal favorite — it has a similar look to Google, and it doesn’t log your IP address and search queries. Its analytics don’t include any metrics that could compromise user privacy, and the company also doesn’t share your contact details (your email) with third parties.
Startpage isn’t open-source, but the company addressed this concern — it regularly updates its algorithms to prevent spammers and robotic scrapers from interfering with the search results. If it were to open-source its code, spammers could easily compromise it.
Editors’ Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which countries are part of the 5 Eyes Alliance?
The 5 Eyes Alliance consists of five countries: the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The 5 Eyes Alliance has also collaborated with other countries, such as South Korea, Japan, Israel, Germany, and France — and there’s also a chance that Japan might join the Alliance, effectively turning it into the 6 Eyes Alliance.
What’s the best way to avoid surveillance in 5 Eyes countries?
The best option is to use a VPN, which is an online app that encrypts your internet traffic. This makes it completely unreadable, so internet service providers and intelligence agencies can’t spy on it. VPNs also hide your IP address, effectively keeping your real location hidden. ExpressVPN is the best pick — it’s been proven to not log any data, all of its servers run on RAM memory (so every server reset wipes everything), and it comes with other high-end security features.
What are the 9 and 14 Eyes Alliances?
These are both expansions of the 5 Eyes Alliance. The 9 Eyes Alliance includes all 5 Eyes countries plus Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Norway. And the 14 Eyes Alliance includes all 9 Eyes countries plus Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden. All 5/9/14 Eyes countries share intelligence data, but there is some data that only 5 Eyes countries have access to.
