Four tech giants denied that they had given the government access on their servers to support Prism.
The secret surveillance program managed by the U.S National Security Agency called Prism was revealed last Friday during a presentation talking about the direct data collection process from servers. Slides were presented revealing major companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Skype, and Twitter. Based on the explanation given, Prism can monitor any online activity including personal emails and chats. The program has been active since 2007 initiated by the Bush administration and continued by the Obama administration. Questions about its legality are yet to be answered by the agency.
Meanwhile, the revelation and the company names revealed were now in a spotlight as users now question their rights to privacy. Apple, Facebook, Google and Yahoo denied their awareness of such program or participation by giving the agency access to their servers.
The agency clarified that they were not monitoring the servers based in the U.S but only those outside the country. However, some were skeptic because it can also be done on the accounts based in the U.S. Experts warned the government that this controversy could endanger the businesses of the companies and possibly jeopardize future expansion since the investors are now aware that their personal data are not really secured.
CEOs of the major companies defended their company about this secrecy issue through their own official blogs.
“Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers. We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday. While Facebook also complies with legal demands for user information, the company has never received a "blanket request" for that information, "and if we did, we would fight it aggressively," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Google CEO Larry Page explained that he”frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don't follow the correct process."
Twitter has not given any comment about Prism at this time.
