Do you use services from Microsoft, Google, Apple, or many other major Silicon Valley companies? If so, a long-running government program called PRISM may have been harvesting your photos and other user data, The Washington Post has revealed. The news came just a day after journalist Glenn Greenwald uncovered a secret court order requiring Verizon to collect records of both domestic and international phone calls and report them to the National Security Agency, giving it the ability to conduct widespread surveillance of US citizens. The exact scope of PRISM is still unclear, as the original report claiming the NSA had "direct access" to companies' servers has been partially retracted, and several companies have denied any knowledge of the initiative's existence.The White House has defended its surveillance, and others say this is simply business as usual for the Bush and Obama administrations. But the document has made explicit what many feared: that laws like the FISA Amendments Act and the Patriot Act have allowed the US government to run roughshod over citizens' privacy. The leaker responsible for revealing PRISM to the world, 29-year-old Edward Snowden, came forward in the days following the leak. Snowden's leak has been described by Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, as the most important leak in US history.
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German artist protests NSA with 'light graffiti' on US Embassy in Berlin
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License to troll
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Edward Snowden has applied for extended asylum in Russia, his lawyer says
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NSA and FBI spied on innocent Americans after 9/11 because of their race and religion
Revelations may give targets legal standing to sue the government
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Vast majority of docs collected by NSA come from ordinary internet users, not legal targets
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PRISM is legal, says panel that bashed NSA phone spying
"PRISM collection is clearly authorized by the statute."
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Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech titans tell Senate to fix NSA spying
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House of Representatives passes 'gutted' NSA surveillance reform
Privacy watchdogs hope Senate will roll back amendments to USA Freedom Act
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Glenn Greenwald releases more NSA documents along with new book
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President Obama announces plan to dismantle NSA phone record database
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Mark Zuckerberg called President Obama to complain about NSA surveillance
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Leaked Snowden documents detail NSA's plans for 'millions' of malware attacks