Weekend Reading: The NSA PRISM Program

The Domestic Surveillance Boom, From Bush to Obama

Dave Gilson, Alex Park, and AJ Vicens at Mother Jones ask “How did we get here?” They present a timeline of important events in electronic eavesdropping and the erosion of privacy rights since 9/11. 

NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others

By Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian

• Top-secret Prism program claims direct access to servers of firms including Google, Apple and Facebook

• Companies deny any knowledge of program in operation since 2007

• Obama orders US to draw up overseas target list for cyber-attacks

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…

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Glenn Greenwald: U.S. wants to destroy privacy worldwide

By KATIE GLUECK

Excerpt:

The journalist who broke the news that the government is monitoring vast quantities of American phone records is claiming the U.S. is building a “massive” snooping apparatus committed to destroying privacy worldwide.

“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal, and that is to destroy privacy and anonymity, not just in the United States but around the world,” charged Glenn Greenwald, a reporter for the British newspaper “The Guardian,” speaking on CNN. “That is not hyperbole. That is their objective.”

Greenwald, speaking with CNN’s Piers Morgan, appeared during a week in which Americans learned that according

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