On the heels of news that the U.S. government has been collecting the telephone records of millions of Americans, new reports suggest that intelligence agencies have also been tapping directly into the central servers of several leading internet companies.
Citing a top-secret document, the Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency and the FBI have been accessing the servers to extract audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs.
The previously undisclosed program, code-named PRISM, reportedly allowed the intelligence agencies to access the servers of service providers such as Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Apple (AAPL), and others.
British newspaper The Guardian said it has verified the authenticity of the top secret document but noted that several of the companies have denied knowledge of any such program.
The program was enabled by changes to U.S. surveillance law introduced under President George W. Bush and renewed under President Barack Obama in December of 2012, the Guardian said.
Earlier this week, the Guardian was the first to report that the FBI was granted an order to collect telephone records from millions of U.S. customers of telecom giant Verizon.
The order, granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25th, gave the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a three-month period ending on July 19th.
The Guardian said the order covers the telephone numbers as well as the location, time and duration of the calls but does not cover the content of the conversations.
The back-to-back reports have drawn swift condemnation from civil libertarians, including the American Civil Liberties Union.
"The stories published over the last two days make clear that the NSA - part of the military - now has direct access to every corner of Americans' digital lives," said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer. "Unchecked government surveillance presents a grave threat to democratic freedoms."
He added, "These revelations are a reminder that Congress has given the executive branch far too much power to invade individual privacy, that existing civil liberties safeguards are grossly inadequate, and that powers exercised entirely in secret, without public accountability of any kind, will certainly be abused."
However, the Obama administration has argued that the programs are critical to protecting the nation from terrorist threats.
Responding to the news regarding the PRISM program, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claimed the reports contain numerous inaccuracies and said the program is designed to acquire foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States.
Clapper asserted that the program cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen and that extensive procedures are used to minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about U.S. persons.
"Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats," Clapper said.
He added, "The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans."
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