The Intercept reports that in 2012 and early 2013, New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau planned to implement a mass metadata surveillance system called "Speargun," that "involved the covert installation of 'cable access' equipment, which appears to refer to surveillance of the country’s main undersea cable link." According to the report, "'metadata probes' were to be inserted into those cables," and the program would be legal under the surveillance law passed by the New Zealand Parliament in August of 2013. The law was passed with assurances that it would provide oversight, but documents show that it was considered necessary for completion of Speargun.