The UK government has revealed that intelligence service GCHQ can snoop on British citizens' use of Facebook and Google without an individual warrant because the firms are based overseas.
UK spy boss Charles Farr said that the services are classified as external communications.
The policy was revealed as part of an ongoing legal battle with campaign group Privacy International (PI).
PI said the interpretation of the law "patronises the British people".
It is the first time that the UK has commented on how the UK's legal framework allows the mass interception of communications as outlined by US whistleblower Edward Snowden in his leaks about global government surveillance.
The ex-National Security Agency contractor revealed extensive details of internet and phone snooping and has since fled the US and sought temporary asylum in Russia.
Charles Farr, director general of the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism told PI that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and web searches on Google - as well as webmail services such as Hotmail and Yahoo - are classified as "external communications", which means that they can be intercepted without the need for additional legal clearance.
When someone searches for something on Google or posts on Facebook they are sending information overseas - constituting an act of external communication which could be collected under a broader warrant, explained Mr Farr in a 48 page written statement.
Under British law the internal communications between citizens can only be intercepted when a warrant is issued. Warrants can only be issued when there is suspicion of illegal activity.
Mr Farr did not reveal the extent to which GCHQ uses its power to intercept external communications.
In a statement, GCHQ said all of its work "is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary and proportionate".
'Byzantine' lawsBut civil liberty groups were outraged by the revelations.
James Welch, legal director of human rights group Liberty, said: "The security services consider that they're entitled to read, listen and analyse all our communications on Facebook, Google and other US-based platforms.
"If there was any remaining doubt that our snooping laws need a radical overhaul there can be no longer."
Meanwhile Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International said the revelation showed that spy agencies operated under their own laws.
"Intelligence agencies cannot be considered accountable to parliament and to the public they serve when their actions are obfuscated through secret interpretations of Byzantine laws."
The legal challenge, brought by PI, Amnesty, the American Civil Liberties Union and six other national civil liberties organisations, was a direct response to the revelations made by Edward Snowden about the UK's global digital surveillance.
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