In a series of terse statement, all of the companies named in the reports about NSA’s Internet snooping program, PRISM, have denied involvement. All of these companies have been compelled to share personal data with the government at some time, which they tacitly acknowledge by saying that they only do so after careful consideration and court orders. “Direct access” to servers, though, is a bridge too far, they say; Google (GOOG) also uses the engineer-y term “back door” to explain the access it’s not granting to the federal government. Facebook (FB) and Google start off by saying how much they value their users’ privacy, probably because they’ve been through the fire over personal data many times before. And Apple (AAPL), AOL (AOL), and PalTalk claim never to have heard of the program, maybe just because the NSA doesn’t disclose the code names of its operations to companies it is demanding information from.
Here are all the statements, if you want to place outsized significance in the minor differences between them yourselves.
AOL: “We do not have any knowledge of the Prism program. We do not disclose user information to government agencies without a court order, subpoena or formal legal process, nor do we provide any government agency with access to our servers.”
Apple: “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.”
Facebook: “Protecting the privacy of our users and their data is a top priority for Facebook. We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law.” — Joe Sullivan, chief security officer.
Google: (via the Washington Post) “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.”
Microsoft (MSFT): “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.”
PalTalk: “We have not heard of PRISM. Paltalk exercises extreme care to protect and secure users’ data, only responding to court orders as required to by law. Paltalk does not provide any government agency with direct access to its servers.”
Yahoo (YHOO) (via Mashable): “We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.”
YouTube is owned by Google, and Skype is owned by Microsoft.
