新闻链接：http://news.sky.com/story/1100585/internet-giants-tapped-into-by-us-security
新闻时间：9:17am UK, Friday 07 June 2013
新闻正文：
The US government is secretly tapping into the servers of nine internet giants as part of its anti-terror surveillance programme, according to a report in The Washington Post.
The companies include Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple.
The National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI reportedly extract audio, video, photographs, emails, documents and connection logs to help analysts track users' movements and contacts.
It was not clear whether the programme, called PRISM, targets known suspects or broadly collects data from all Americans.
The paper said the leak came from a career intelligence officer "with first hand experience of these systems and horror at their capabilities."
"They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type," the officer was quoted as saying.
Internet giants however denied opening their doors to US spy agencies.
The huge National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
In a statement, Google said it discloses user data to the government in accordance with the law and reviews 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," the statement said.
"We have never heard of PRISM," said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling.
"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's chief security officer Joe Sullivan said the huge social network did not provide any access to government organisations.
In response, the White House said Americans were not being spied on, but did not deny the programme existed.
"It involves extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-US persons outside the US are targeted, and that minimise the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about US persons," a senior official said.
Congress recently re-authorised the programme, originally formulated after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, "after extensive hearings and debate," the official added.
Data from Verizon customers is allegedly collected by the NSA
The fresh leak brought a sharp response from James Clapper, the director of national intelligence - already stung by The Guardian's revelation a day earlier about the covert monitoring of millions of Americans' phone data.
He called the disclosure of the internet surveillance "reprehensible", and said the leak about the phone record collecting could cause irreversible harm to the nation's ability to respond to threats.
He warned that data gathered under the program was "among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect."
"The unauthorised disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans," he said.
However the American Civil Liberties Union branded the practise authorised by a top secret court order, as "beyond Orwellian".
The group urged supporters to get angry and "be part of a strong public outcry" by signing a petition.
Senior US officials did not confirm the Guardian report but defended the concept.
"The top priority of the president of the United States is the national security of the United States. We need to make sure we have the tools we need to confront the threat posed by terrorists," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
But he added that President Obama welcomed the debate on the balance between civil liberties and security.
