GCHQ, one of the three UK intelligence agencies, has issued a public statement in which it has specifically denied that it is developing technology which would enable it to access all internet traffic in the UK. The statement, which was made in response to weekend media reports on GCHQ’s Mastering the Internet Programme (MTI), is unusual in that the agency does not usually comment on media stories. The statement is plainly designed to reassure the public than the State is not secretly sanctioning the development of highly intrusive surveillance strategies. Its release follows in the wake of an announcement made by the Home Secretary on 27 April 2009 that the government had shelved plans to create a superdatabase that would centrally store all communications data in Britain (see the earlier post on the Super Database).