According to the NSA, tech companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft all knew that they were collecting user data, except they weren't aware of the internal name of the program.
Rajesh De, one of the NSA's lawyers, said that the name "Prism" (the name of the program) was used internally, and tech companies weren't aware of it, though they were aware of its capabilities. "Prism was an internal government term that as the result of leaks became the public term," De said during a hearing. "Collection under this program was a compulsory legal process that any recipient company would receive."
De was asked if the companies from which they took data knew they were taking it, specifically, if they had "full knowledge and assistance of any company from which information is obtained."
He said, "Yes."
We'll update if companies respond to this information.
[viaThe Guardian]
