14 DAY TRIAL // Larry Page isn’t the only CEO to be outraged by PRISM-related allegations, but also Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
The CEO’s statement is similar to that Facebook released yesterday, in which they were denying providing “direct” server access, as The Next Web points out.
Zuckerberg’s words also resemble those of Google’s Larry Page as they both state that they’ve never heard of PRISM before the bomb hit.
“Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn’t even heard of PRISM before yesterday,” the young CEO said.
He further goes on to say that when governments ask Facebook for data, the requests are reviewed carefully to make sure they’re not illegal.
Zuckerberg finishes off his statement by encouraging all governments to increase they transparency regarding all programs that are created for keeping the public safe, claiming that it is the only way to protect everyone’s civil liberties.
Once more, the question remains about whether any “indirect” access has been permitted or if there was any sort of real-time monitoring capabilities provided to the US government.
For those who do not know, only two days ago the secret NSA spying project called PRISM was revealed. Basically, under the Patriot Act, the government agency went on to monitor phonecalls, emails, messages and much more by signing on several Internet giants and telecommunications companies.
Among the companies that have allegedly provided the government with private data on their users are Verizon, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Skype, AOL and Apple, just to name a few.
While companies are denying having ever done such a thing, the NSA director went on to blame the media for revealing the secret project.