I don't know what's going on at the Guardian. But someone is on a mission it seems to expose the darkest secrets of the Corporate Surveillance State and they're using the Guardian to do it.
Regardless, the latest, just from this evening, isthe revelation that the NSA has a secret program, called Prism, set up to have direct access to the servers of all the big internet companies that we all use daily for searching, communicating, and data storage.
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.
The list of companies allegedly participating in the program is the Who's Who list of big names:
Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft – which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Your privacy is our priority" – was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007.
It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online.
Collectively, the companies cover the vast majority of online email, search, video and communications networks.
The point? Before, the government had to formally request data on people targeted for surveillance. With Prism, the government has direct access in real time.
When the FAA was first enacted, defenders of the statute argued that a significant check on abuse would be the NSA's inability to obtain electronic communications without the consent of the telecom and internet companies that control the data. But the PRISM program renders that consent unnecessary, as it allows the agency to directly and unilaterally seize the communications off the companies' servers.
A chart prepared by the NSA, contained within the top-secret document obtained by the Guardian, underscores the breadth of the data it is able to obtain: email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP (Skype, for example) chats, file transfers, social networking details, and more.
For some of us, this is merely confirmation of what we've suspected all along. For others, hopefully, it will be a wakeup call.