Secret program gives NSA, FBI backdoor access to Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft data

[39478]

Secret program gives NSA, FBI backdoor access to Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft data
Five-year-old program provides government with direct access to email, messages, browser history, more
By Dan Seifert on June 6, 2013 06:04 pm Email @dcseifert

The US National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation have been harvesting data such as audio, video, photographs, emails, and documents from the internal servers of nine major technology companies, according to a leaked 41-slide security presentation obtained by The Washington Post and The Guardian. According to The Washington Post, the program's slides were provided by a "career intelligence officer" that had "firsthand experience with these systems, and horror at their capabilities," and wished to expose the programs "gross intrusion on privacy."

The program, codenamed PRISM, is considered highly classified and has never been made public before. The list of companies involved are the who's who of Silicon Valley: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. Dropbox, though not yet an official part of the program, is said to be joining it soon. These companies have all willingly participated in the program, says the Post.

According to the leaked presentation, the program has been in action since 2007, and is considered the biggest contributor to the daily briefings given to the President, providing data in 1,477 articles last year alone. Allegedly, nearly one in seven intelligence reports from the NSA contains data from the PRISM program. The NSA has the ability to pull any sort of data it likes from these companies, but it claims that it does not try to collect it all. The PRISM program goes above and beyond the existing laws that state companies must comply with government requests for data, as it gives the NSA direct access to each company's servers — essentially letting the NSA do as it pleases. The program was initiated to overcome what the NSA saw as constraints within the existing FISA warrant program that did not allow the agency to make us of the "home-field advantage" provided by having most of the internet's biggest companies on US soil.

Microsoft was the first company to bow to the government's wishes and join the PRISM program in 2007, while Apple held out for five years before agreeing. Though Google and Facebook are a part of PRISM, Twitter has not yet joined. Apparently, the only members of Congress that knew about PRISM's existence were bound by oath not to speak of it publicly. In a statement provided to both The Washington Post and The Guardian, Google denied that the government had any sort of backdoor access to its systems:

"Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'backdoor' into our systems, but Google does not have a 'backdoor' for the government to access private user data."

The training documents for the program reveal that the NSA collects a large amount of data on the American public through the PRISM program. For example, if a specific target is investigated using PRISM, that target's complete inbox and outbox is swept, in addition to anyone that is connected to it. This high-level of access was initially given to the NSA by President Bush and was later renewed in 2012 by President Obama.

This report follows the news from earlier this week of the NSA's involvement in collecting call data and records from Verizon in another massive surveillance partnership.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/6/44...-apple-google-facebook-microsoft-others-prism

I'm beginning to really dislike what my future is going to look like.

 

[an dee 51o]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2013/06/the-nsa-verizon-scandal.html

NSA also secretly collected phone records of millions of Verizon users. FISA "courts" "overseeing" this idiocy are a travesty...

This is getting crazy...

 

[obeahmyal7]

Thanks for this. I Posted an op-ed from Julian Assange on Sunday but the thread got no traction. In any event, I'm caught between feeling outraged by the complicity of corporations--the likes of which we have never seen before, both in terms of their profit model and control of information--and the federal government in monitoring our behavior, and not surprised, considering how people willingly parade in front of the camera, upload photos and personal information on websites. 

We have this false notion that facebook, apple, and google are the "good" corporations. They are the last hopes that consolidation can be a good thing; that these conglomerates are different from Monsanto, chevron, and those "evil" corporations. But these tech giants are troubling for a number of reasons. For one, these companies help produce the quintessential neoliberal: Folks who believe that teaching inner city kids and impoverished "3rd world natives" how to code and surrounding them with market-based solutions are the ingredients for uplift. You find very little in the way of redistribution among these folks who mask their neoliberal sentiments behind the banner of "efficiency." Secondly, these corporations rely on the illusion of "free" services. Nothing is free. We pay the price via the commodificaiton of our personal preferences, viewing behaviors, and so on. 

I deactivated my facebook. Intend on getting rid of my apple phone, and contemplating using usb's instead of g-mail for storing information. Its hard to get off the grid these days but its worth trying. 

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

**** the people responsible for the PATRIOT ACT and all those who execute their orders.

 

[RIP sleazyy]

Its for our own safety guys, relax. If the government doesn't know what we're doing 24 hours a day the terrorists win.

 

[crazy ebw]

So the government knows I fap to porn, e-stalk my ex and pray she isn't happy and misses me, and notes what apps I download?

Oh well.

 

[gllahone84]

But how dare you bring up conspiracy?

 

[water]

Do they have access to NT. Serious question. 

 

[Sir San Diego]

The FBI and NSA has seen my meat. No dambs given.

 

[gllahone84]

**** the people responsible for the PATRIOT ACT and all those who execute their orders.

Direct your anger domestically...it's all homegrown. 

 

[currensy]

No phone, I'm officially off the grid.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Poverty is real

 

[gllahone84]

And the next gen consoles wanna keep an eye on you at all times. 

 

[Johnny_Cakes]

**** the people responsible for the PATRIOT ACT and all those who execute their orders.

Direct your anger domestically...it's all homegrown. 

I meant it domestically. It wasn't foreign terrorists who wrote the PATRIOT ACT or conspire to subvert the Constitution to obtain information on private citizens.

 

[an dee 51o]

So the government knows I fap to porn, e-stalk my ex and pray she isn't happy and misses me, and notes what apps I download?

Oh well.

And what if you made a call to someone linked to terrorism? Emphasis on the word "linked."

 

[36Hypno]

No phone, I'm officially off the grid.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Poverty is real

You just posted on NT though

I figure that anything I post or use over a network is monitored....shrug

 

[fresh out dabox]

Its for our own safety guys, relax. If the government doesn't know what we're doing 24 hours a day the terrorists win.

 

[will0827]

Im also a nut worried about all this stuff, and all the conspiracy theories, i believe everyone knew that this was happening anyway, and atleast from my viewpoint i dont see how even with this happening things have been radically different, we still havent been taken captive into chambers or have our houses raided and taken into camps. I mean how many things are alot of people able to do on a daily basis even with all this infomation collection and big brother ish type stuff happening in the back ground. Many of use are able to openly talk about many things on here or facebook and i dont recall anyone here being taken off and jailed in guantanamo for things posted online. I mean theres people in other countries living with barely breathable air and we have girls twerkin on demand. People every waking minute in fear or bombs being dropped or choppers shooting up villages or suicide attacks, and were here buying iphones and sneakers and smoking weed and getting stupid drunk, or going to a park to hang out and chill or catch a movie or read books.

 

[yeah]

PRISM is what they call it, huh?

And this is only the beginning. That Utah Data Center is almost finished.

Better quality picture...

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

View media item 444516

And a video...

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

...I want to work there so bad, but there is nooooooo way.

 

[crazy ebw]

And what if you made a call to someone linked to terrorism? Emphasis on the word "linked."

Is this a pun because I use a "linksys" router? I'm confused.

 

[RIP sleazyy]

Do they have access to NT. Serious question. 

NT is a surface site. So yeah

Hell if you use the same emails, avys, sigs, post structure... They know wherever you are on the net. When they were investigating Topiary they used stuff like that to gather more info about him.

I wonder if Yuku or Huddler has gotten requests for peoples IP addys

 

[nom de guerre]

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

feds schemin

 

[will0827]

At the end if the day if the americans were to revolt in some kind of uprise and take over the country, whats the plan after, were still going to be fighting over difference of opinion and the new orders to follow cause well never be able to agree on whats best, i mean people kill each other now for no reason, whats gonna happen when theres no order and its every one for themselves. All the rapist and serial killers and legit criminals on the loose with nothing to stop anyone. Whos gonna keep our water clean, electricity running in the country, importing food and everything were accoustomed to now for living. If and when the laws are layed into place again people arent gonna like it and a new system for order will be made and we will all be back where we started.

 

[curbsideprophet]

At this point I seriously don't care. 

Only thing I get sketched about is all these pirated movies and music......

 

[thunderchunk69]

So the government knows I fap to porn, e-stalk my ex and pray she isn't happy and misses me, and notes what apps I download?

Oh well.

I e-stalked Katie too meng

 

[39478]

It's just sad that ordinary people are being snooped on. V for Vendetta had it down pretty well