Reports of “PRISM” a progr
am which reportedly enables the US government to tap directly into the central servers of nine US-based Internet companies have been surfacing in the media.
Six of the major tech companies involved, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Dropbox and Facebook, have denied involvement.
The Washington Post reported that Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, AOL and PalTalk are all knowing participants of PRISM. Dropbox is reportedly expected to join soon.
However, Apple, Yahoo, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft and Facebook have provided statements claiming they are not participants.
Facebook has confirmed that it does not provide the US government with direct access to its servers.
Shortly after this confirmation, Apple told CNBC that it has “never heard of PRISM.” In addition, the company claims it does not “provide any government agency with direct access to [its] servers.”
Google has also confirmed that it does not know about this program and that it isn’t participating in it in any way. The company tells us that ”Google does not have a ‘back door’ for the government to access private user data.”
More from 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.
Microsoft has released an official statement, claiming the following:
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.
Yahoo provided a similar statement:
Yahoo! takes users’ privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.
Dropbox has denied involvement as well, stating the following: “we are not part of any such program and remain committed to protecting our users’ privacy.”
We have reached out to the other companies involved, but have yet to hear back. We will update this post if and when we do.
Credit: TNW
