NSA: Tech Companies Knew We Collected User Data

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other tech giants knew of the existence of the Internet surveillance program PRISM, they just didn't know it was called that, according to the NSA's top lawyer.

Rajesh De, the spy agency's general counsel, said that the companies knew that the NSA was collecting data from them. This revelation comes after months of repeated — and very similar — denials by the tech companies.

"Prism was an internal government term that as the result of leaks became the public term," De said at a hearing with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Wednesday, according to The Guardian. "Collection under this program was a compulsory legal process that any recipient company would receive." Meaning, any company that received data requests, which would include tech companies, would have been subject to PRISM. Read more...