Details of secret Internet data collection program declassified

[Casino67]

Hill:

By Daniel Strauss and Brendan Sasso - 06/08/13 05:13 PM ET

The head of U.S. intelligence released new details on Saturday about the federal government's secretive program to monitor Internet users.

 

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denied that the program, called PRISM, "unilaterally" obtains information from the servers of U.S. Internet companies.

 

"PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program," Clapper said in a statement. "It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government's statutorily authorized collection of foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision, as authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)."

 

He said that the Internet companies provide user data to the National Security Agency only after receiving an order approved by a secret FISA court.

 

Those courts only approve information requests if there is a "foreign intelligence purpose" and the target is "reasonably believed" to be outside of the United States, Clapper said.

"In short, Section 702 facilitates the targeted acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning foreign targets located outside the United States under court oversight," he said. "Service providers supply information to the Government when they are lawfully required to do so."

 

Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other Internet companies vehemently denied news reports on Thursday that they allow the NSA to tap directly into their servers to mine their users' data.

 

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I wonder how many versions of the talking points this took? Will Susan Rice be all over the TV tomorrow explaining this?