NSA has "back door" into Google, Apple, Facebook and others

Soldato
Joined
20 Mar 2006
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8,336
We have all long suspected this, but here seems to be the proof. What do you make of this, and how do you think these companies are going to handle this situation?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

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 Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers.

Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.

In a statement, Google said: "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."

Several senior tech executives insisted that they had no knowledge of PRISM or of any similar scheme. They said they would never have been involved in such a program. "If they are doing this, they are doing it without our knowledge," one said.

Kind of makes a mockery of the latest Microsoft TV campaign. They have been breached for years...
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Update, is this not Hacking?:

An Apple spokesman said: "We have never heard of PRISM. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers and any agency requesting customer data must get a court order," he said.

Joe Sullivan, Facebook's chief security officer, said it did not provide government organisation with direct access to Facebook servers. "When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinise any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law."

A Google spokesman also said it did not provide officials with access to its servers. "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 'backdoor' into our systems, but Google does not have a 'back door' for the government to access private user data."

Microsoft said it only turned over data when served with a court order: "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."

A Yahoo spokesman said: "Yahoo! takes users' privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.
 
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Soldato
Joined
4 Feb 2004
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13,360
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Fife, Scotland
We already knew they were a formidable government department. There was a documentary a while back that showed off their abilities. 'Enemy of the state' I think it was called?. Had some dudes called 'Gene' and 'Will' in it.
 
Tea Drinker
Don
Joined
13 Apr 2010
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18,416
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Sunny Sussex
If you're not planning the next 11-9 then what you worried about, they can gladly have my logs of me arguing with my wife and organising drinks with my mates.

Don't flatter yourself.
 
Caporegime
Joined
20 May 2007
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39,655
Location
Surrey
That is always the most retarded statement in these discussions.

I have 'nothing to hide' from the authorities, it still doesn't mean that I would be happy with them having access to every detail of my personal life :confused:

and you think they care? The likelihood is, unless you ever get caught up in a crime, no one will ever be interested in what you had for breakfast this morning or what you thought of x factor last night.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2010
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Lincs
and you think they care? The likelihood is, unless you ever get caught up in a crime, no one will ever be interested in what you had for breakfast this morning or what you thought of x factor last night.

It's irrelevant if they care or not, or if my conversations are interesting or not, I do not want the authorities to have the power to snoop into my life whenever they feel like it without any prior suspicion.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Jun 2008
Posts
8,328
For what its worth, apple deny it:
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.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Apr 2013
Posts
3,067
So these top secret level spy types looking at everyone's data are utterly hopeless when it comes to PowerPoint presentations.... I mean, look at the bloody state of that!

This sort of thing has been spoken about for years, this "back door" that NSA has apparently had for a long time.... The problem here is that it's typical Guardian moron's who published this. So they try to make it sound like somebody is sitting and can do a basic search on Joe Bloggs and pull up his Facebook and view every message he sent to his mates this year with 3 mouse clicks. They try to encourage this fear and dumb down the realism of the situation to make it relevant to the average user. It's annoying.

Patriot's Act. If the yanks want anything specifically, they can simply have it anyway. So who gives a toss? Anybody with anything to hide knows what they are doing anyway, if a "back door" exists then they're spying content which is pointless anyway and why would people even worry? It's absolute BS they can access anyone's data in such a way, I'm not happy about it, but there's nothing any of us can do unless we completely avoid the big boys services.
 
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