Distinction in travel journalism
Is independent travel journalism important to you?
Click here to keep it independent

20 Mar, 2014

US tech giants knew of NSA data collection, agency’s top lawyer insists – The Guardian

The senior lawyer for the National Security Agency stated unequivocally on Wednesday that US technology companies were fully aware of the surveillance agency’s widespread collection of data, contradicting months of angry denials from the firms.

Rajesh De, the NSA general counsel, said all communications content and associated metadata harvested by the NSA under a 2008 surveillance law occurred with the knowledge of the companies – both for the internet collection program known as Prism and for the so-called “upstream” collection of communications moving across the internet.

Asked during a Wednesday hearing of the US government’s institutional privacy watchdog if collection under the law, known as Section 702 or the Fisa Amendments Act, occurred with the “full knowledge and assistance of any company from which information is obtained,” De replied: “Yes.”

Read the rest: US tech giants knew of NSA data collection, agency’s top lawyer insists | World news | theguardian.com.