Microsoft denies participation in national security program
Published 3:52 pm Friday, June 7, 2013
A June 6 story in the Washington Post has noted Microsoft as the “first partner” in PRISM, a National Security Agency and FBI program that involves tapping directly into the central servers of the Redmond company and eight other leading U.S. Internet companies.
The program involves “extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets.” The Post obtained a top-secret document and wrote that the code-name PRISM program has just now been made public.
According to Microsoft’s website news center on June 6, officials say they provide customer data only when they receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis.
“In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it,” the news release concludes.
Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper wrote in a statement on his office’s website on June 6 that “information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats.
“The unauthorized disclosure of information about this important and entirely legal program is reprehensible and risks important protections for the security of Americans.”
