US govt can't access Google servers directly: CEO Larry Page
Caught in the controversy around mass surveillance program run by the powerfulNational Security Agency in the US, Google on Saturday denied that it allowed NSA sleuths direct access to its servers.
In a post, titled "What the ...?", on the company's official blog, CEO Larry Page said Google had not joined any surveillance programme run by the US.
"We have not joined any program that would give the US government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a 'back door' to the information stored in our data centres. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday," he wrote in a post that was also bylined by Google's chief legal officer David Drummond.
On Friday, the Washington Post and the Guardian reported that NSA had direct access to data belonging to nine technology companies - Google, AOL, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Skype, Facebook, YouTube and PalTalk. The report said that NSA sleuths could monitor or access every mail, video message and status update, etc made by the users of the services run by these nine companies.
Twitter declined to make it easier for the government. But other companies were more compliant, according to people briefed on the negotiations. They opened discussions with national security officials about developing technical methods to more efficiently and securely share the personal data of foreign users in response to lawful government requests. And in some cases, they changed their computer systems to do so.
Caught in the controversy around mass surveillance program run by the powerfulNational Security Agency in the US, Google on Saturday denied that it allowed NSA sleuths direct access to its servers.
In a post, titled "What the ...?", on the company's official blog, CEO Larry Page said Google had not joined any surveillance programme run by the US.
"We have not joined any program that would give the US government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a 'back door' to the information stored in our data centres. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday," he wrote in a post that was also bylined by Google's chief legal officer David Drummond.
On Friday, the Washington Post and the Guardian reported that NSA had direct access to data belonging to nine technology companies - Google, AOL, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Skype, Facebook, YouTube and PalTalk. The report said that NSA sleuths could monitor or access every mail, video message and status update, etc made by the users of the services run by these nine companies.
EVEN THOUGH
Tech Companies Concede to Surveillance Program
When government officials came to Silicon Valley to demand easier ways for the world’s largest Internet companies to turn over user data as part of a secret surveillance program, the companies bristled. In the end, though, many cooperated at least a bit.
Twitter declined to make it easier for the government. But other companies were more compliant, according to people briefed on the negotiations. They opened discussions with national security officials about developing technical methods to more efficiently and securely share the personal data of foreign users in response to lawful government requests. And in some cases, they changed their computer systems to do so.
The negotiations shed a light on how Internet companies, increasingly at the center of people’s personal lives, interact with the spy agencies that look to their vast trove of information — e-mails, videos, online chats, photos and search queries — for intelligence. They illustrate how intricately the government and tech companies work together, and the depth of their behind-the-scenes transactions
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