Ένα νέο πρωτοφανές σκάνδαλο απασχολεί αυτή τη στιγμή τις ΗΠΑ αλλά και ολόκληρο τον κόσμο, με δημοσίευμα του Washington Post να αναφέρει ότι τα τελευταία 6 χρόνια(!) NSA και FBI έχουν πρόσβαση σε κλήσεις, video, φωτογραφίες, email, αρχεία και connection logs από τους κεντρικούς servers των Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube και Apple στα πλαίσια ενός μυστικού προγράμματος παρακολούθησης ονόματι PRISM.
Η ιστορία ξεκίνησε από την αποκάλυψη ότι η Verizon έχει εντολή να παρέχει στην NSA ηλεκτρονικά αντίγραφα όλων των κλήσεων που πραγματοποιούνται στο δίκτυο της (εντός των ΗΠΑ ή από τις ΗΠΑ στο εξωτερικό και αντίστροφα) και μάλιστα σε καθημερινή βάση. Δυστυχώς όμως οι αποκαλύψεις δεν έμειναν μόνο στη Verizon και στο παιχνίδι μπήκαν και όλοι οι προαναφερθέντες ιντερνετικοί κολοσσοί.
Facebook, Google και Microsoft έσπευσαν άμεσα σε δηλώσεις αρνούμενες ευθέως τον οποιοδήποτε διαμοιρασμό δεδομένων με τους δύο κυβερνητικούς φορείς:
Facebook

Protecting the privacy of our users and their data is a top priority for Facebook. We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.

Google

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 ‘back door’ into our systems, but Google does not have a ‘back door’ for the government to access private user data.

Microsoft

We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it.

Ωστόσο, παρά τις διαψεύσεις τους, ο Director of National Intelligence (DNI), James Clapper, δεν αρνήθηκε την ύπαρξη της συμφωνίας -αναφέροντας ότι είναι αναγκαία για την ασφάλεια των ΗΠΑ- παρά μόνο επεσήμανε ορισμένες ανακρίβειες:

The Guardian and The Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. They contain numerous inaccuracies.
Section 702 is a provision of FISA that is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States. It cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States.
Activities authorized by Section 702 are subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Executive Branch, and Congress. They involve extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-U.S. persons outside the U.S. are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about U.S. persons.
Section 702 was recently reauthorized by Congress after extensive hearings and debate.
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.
The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans.