NSA taps in to internet giants’ systems to mine user data, secret files reveal

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-dataAlso see:PRISM scandal: tech giants flatly deny allowing NSA direct access to servers
Two different versions of the PRISM scandal were emerging on Thursday with Silicon Valley executives denying all knowledge of the top secret program that gives the National Security Agency direct access to the internet giants’ servers.The eavesdropping program is detailed in the form of PowerPoint slides in a leaked NSA document, seen and authenticated by the Guardian, which states that it is based on “legally-compelled collection” but operates with the “assistance of communications providers in the US.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/07/prism-tech-giants-shock-nsa-data-miningGoogle, Apple and Facebook Outright Deny They’re Helping the NSA Mine Data
A seemingly incompatible perspective on the reports from the Washington Post and the Guardian today that the U.S. National Security Agency has for six years been operating a project called PRISM — for which Internet companies provide massive amounts of online user data crucial to intelligence operations — is that of the Internet companies themselves. They say they’ve never heard of it.Said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling in a statement today, “We have never heard of PRISM. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order.”
http://allthingsd.com/20130606/google-and-apple-outright-deny-theyre-helping-the-nsa-mine-data/What the NSA Wants to Know About You and Your Phone
So, now we know. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the U.S. government is tracking phone calls made by American citizens within domestic borders and to parties outside the country.Strangely, it took a British newspaper to reveal this fact. The Guardian reported yesterday that it had obtained a copy of an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to the telecom giant Verizon. The order directed the company to hand over what it describes as “telephony metadata” to both the FBI, America’s national law enforcement agency, and the National Security Agency, the super-secret agency tasked with both protecting the sensitive official communications of government officials and spying on the communications of other countries.
http://allthingsd.com/20130606/what-the-nsa-wants-to-know-about-you-and-your-phone/NSA has backdoor access to Internet companies’ databases
A top-secret surveillance program gives the National Security Agency surreptitious access to customer information held by Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies, according to a pair of new reports.The program, code-named PRISM, reportedly allows NSA analysts to peruse exabytes of confidential user data held by Silicon Valley firms by typing in search terms. PRISM reports have been used in 1,477 items in President Obama’s daily briefing last year, according to an internal presentation to the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate obtained by the Washington Post and the Guardian newspapers.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57588143-38/nsa-has-backdoor-access-to-internet-companies-databases/