The US government could be secretly spying on millions of UK citizens through their online profiles and passing the information to British agents, it emerged today.
The National Security Agency and the FBI have been pulling personal data directly from the mainframes of nine top US tech giants, including Apple, Google and Facebook, for the past six years as part of a top-secret initiative codenamed PRISM.
While the NSA is by far the biggest surveillance agency in the world, it regularly shares its work its British counterparts, triggering fears the information of any Brit with an online footprint with one of the targetted firms could have been plundered.
The revelation - which is the largest anti-terror intelligence-gathering operation since 9/11 - will place massive pressure on Obama, who is already reeling from the recent IRS scandal.
I know what you're doing this summer: The Obama administration defended the order on Thursday, calling it 'a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats'
Classified: The particulars of the PRISM data-mining program have been outlined in a top-secret PowerPoint presentation for senior intelligence analysts, which ended up being leaked
Participants: This graph shows when each of the nine tech companies joined PRISM, with Apple being the latest addition in October 2012
The NSA is known to collaborate with four other allies: Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Together, they are known as the 'five eyes', of which the second biggest is Britain's General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
In addition to the names already on the list, the cloud-storage service Dropbox was described as 'coming soon' to PRISM.
NSA IN THE USA: HOW AGENCY HAS TAPPED ITS OWN CITIZENS
Set up by Harry Truman (pictured) in 1953, The NSA is the eyes and ears of America across the globe, intercepting 1.7 billion emails, phone calls a day’.
It is the the secretive body that serves the military and intelligence communities by collecting all forms of foreign communications to prevent attacks on the US.
It was prohibited by law from intercepting domestic communications without a warrant until George W. Bush issued a caveat in the wake of 9/11 under the controversial 'terrorist surveillance program'.
Nonetheless, over the years the NSA has been engulfed in a number of snooping scandals.
They include President Nixon's illegal wiretapping, through the NSA, of five members of his national security staff, two newsmen, and a staffer at the Department of Defense in a bid to uncover who was leaking information about his plans for the Vietnam War.
In 2005 it was revealed George W Bush had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop on Americans calling abroad without warrants in a bid to thwart terrorism. He strenuously denied the allegations until he finally conceded he had committed an impeachable offense.
And in 2009, under President Obama, the US Department of Justice acknowledged the NSA had gone beyond its remit in tapping the phonelines of American citizens, including a Congressman, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.
Last month, it was accused of building an £800million cyber base to keep tabs on American citizens.
The state-of-the-art data centre in the Utah desert – codenamed Bumblehive – is intended to bolster online security efforts.
But former employees say it could be used to monitor people’s private emails.
The NSA branded the allegations 'unfounded', adding that it remained 'unwavering' in its respect for U.S. laws and American citizens' civil liberties, and noted that it was subject to broad oversight by all three branches of government.
Twitter, which is known for zealously protecting its users' privacy, is conspicuous in its absence from the list of Internet companies involved in the data-mining program.
PRISM was launched in 2007 with the blessing of special federal judges under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Post said that several members of the U.S. Congress were made aware of the classified data-gathering program, but were sworn to secrecy.
All forms of wiretapping of U.S. citizens by the NSA requires a warrant from a three-judge court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed in 1978.
But former President George W. Bush issued an executive order shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York that authorised the NSA to monitor certain phone calls without obtaining a warrant.
The warrantless wiretapping programme remained a secret until 2005, when a whistleblower went to the press to reveal the extent of the surveillance.
And although the NSA has strenuously denied acting beyond its surveillance powers, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have warned that the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) - a bill currently passing through Congress - could dramatically increase the amount of personal data that government agencies have legal access to.
The particulars of the program have been outlined in a top-secret PowerPoint presentation for senior intelligence analysts, which ended up being leaked to The Post and Britain's The Guardian.
According to The Washington Post, the tech companies are knowingly taking part in PRISM, but The Guardian reported than all nine pleaded ignorance of the program.
In a statement issued by Google, the company said it 'cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review 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.'
Apple Inc on Thursday said it does not provide any government agency with direct access to its servers, denying a key aspect of a Washington Post report.
'We have never heard of PRISM,' Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. '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.'
Asked whether Apple joined the NSA-FBI data collection program, Apple declined to comment beyond its brief statement.
Bombshell: NSA and FBI have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other data from Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and PalTalk
Key source: PRISM has been described by NSA officials 'as the most prolific contributor to the president's Daily Brief,' providing analysts with a wealth of 'raw material'
According to the Post, PRISM has been described by NSA officials 'as the most prolific contributor to the president's Daily Brief' and the 'leading source of raw material.'
As a cryptolific intelligence agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, the NSA is responsible for collecting and analyzing foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence. However, the agency allegedly has been using PRISM to target American Internet companies handling the accounts of domestic users on U.S. soil.
Analysts working for the NSA would reportedly pick out bits and pieces of data using search terms to help them zero in on foreign targets, but it is not unusual for American content to become swept in as well.
Denial: Google released a statement insisting that the company has not created a 'back door' into its system for the government to access its users' private information
Damage control: All nine companies allegedly involved in the spying program, among them Microsoft (left) and Apple (right), have denied knowledge of PRISM
Social media tool: Analysts targeting a potential terrorist or a spy would draw in information from his Facebook account, including his contacts
Outsider: Twitter, which has a reputation for protecting its users' privacy, was not on the list of Internet companies involved in the data-mining program
In practice, if collection managers in the NSA's Special Source Operation Group, which manages PRISM, have suspicion that their target is a foreign national engaged in terrorism or a spy, they move ahead to draw in all the data from the user's Facebook account, email inboxes and outboxes, and Skype conversations, which would often net in information on the suspect's contacts.
The 41-slide PowerPoint presentation outlining PRISM was leaked to the media by a career intelligence officer, which the Post says had 'firsthand experience with these system, and horror at their capabilities.'
The unnamed whistle-blower reportedly said he was driven by the desire to expose the government’s ‘gross intrusion on privacy.'
'They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,' the officer said.
'Reprehensible': Director of National Intelligence James Clapper branded the program 'reprehensible' and said it risks Americans' security
Spying: The NSA has been getting millions of phone records from Verizon on a daily basis for months without any justification for the order, that was only revealed today
The bombshell allegations come one day after it was revealed that the NSA has been collecting telephone records of millions of U.S. Verizon customers.
The Obama administration defended the order on Thursday, calling it 'a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats.'
But Director of National Intelligence James Clapper denounced the disclosure of highly secret documents Thursday and sought to set the record straight about how the government collects intelligence about people's telephone and Internet use.
He said he was declassifying some aspects of the monitoring to help Americans understand it better.
He called the disclosure of an Internet surveillance program 'reprehensible' and said it risks Americans' security.
Double bind: Part of the order mandated that Verizon not tell its' customer's about the record transfer nor could they admit that the order existed
He said a leak that revealed a program to collect phone records would affect how America's enemies behave and make it harder to understand their intentions.
'The unauthorized disclosure of a top secret U.S. court document threatens potentially long-lasting and irreversible harm to our ability to identify and respond to the many threats facing our nation,' Clapper said in an unusual late-night statement.
At the same time, he moved to correct misunderstandings about both programs, taking the rare step of declassifying some details about the authority used in the phone records program and alleging that articles about the Internet program 'contain numerous inaccuracies.'
He did not specify what those inaccuracies might be.
At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an 'ongoing, daily basis' the records of its customers' calls. Separately, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported Thursday the existence of another program used by the NSA and FBI that scours the nation's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other information.
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"I put it to you that you beat him, he fainted and you resuscitated him. He woke up and... you beat him again," prosecutor Jacky Mabasa told the jury in court
