The moment you post stuff like this, about 5 nations feds track it.
Nearly 30 years ago some chap who worked at one of the British monitoring centres (there are at least 3 in the South alone, Cheltenham is just one of them; another is just outside Reading in SE England (60 km West of London) and is still used by the BBC. He worked at this place and tipped off me and my friends about how any discussions about class A drugs / hard drugs on any European telecoms network are recorded and monitored.
(the same guy also pointed out the whole synthesis for LSD was in a book in the University library; and a how lot of the stuff was once made in Reading until people did too much and went mad across Europe and the cops/security services had to do some heavy surveillance and the people involved all got caught).
there has always been a certain amount of leeway for discussion about drugs relating to harm reduction; but dealing especially when it crosses international borders does attract heavy attention.
As me and my friends were interested in technology, music and alternative lifestyles he explained it in these fairly simple terms:
* if you transmit this info across wireless networks; we can receive it on antennas and if its encrypted it may be sent to Cheltenham to be decoded (Caversham normally only receives signals of public broadcasters and monitors open internet forums).
* if you transmit it across copper or fibre optic cable, British Telecom can intercept it (at various monitoring points which have always been there and are also used simply to check that everything is working correctly without disconnecting 1000s of circuits)
* Britain and Europe are part of NATO so they have to exchange this data with USA whether or not those involved agree with it.
This dude was like the Edward Snowden of his day; except he didn’t end up having to disappear and become a useful idiot for the Soviets (along with his colleagues he got his early pension in the 1990s when the job he did got replaced by computerised equipment. They are still enjoying their retirement today along with his friends (they spend their time still listening to distant radio signals but as a hobby and the agreement of those involved)
The only things that have changed in the 30 years are the technology that is available.
