[Pak Daily Times] US spies are secretly tapping into servers of nine Internet giants including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft...producers of Windows, Office, and the late Microsoft Bob, contributed $852,167 to the 2008 Obama campaign...
and Google
...contributed $814,540 to the 2008 Obama campaign...
in a vast anti-terror sweep targeting foreigners, explosive reports said Thursday.
Stung by a dizzying 24 hours of revelations on covert programs, the top US spy James Clapper slammed disclosure of information about the scheme, and warned that leaks about a separate program to mine domestic phone records hurt US national security.
The White House, meanwhile, facing a fast-escalating controversy over the scale and scope of secret surveillance programs, denied spying on Americans but insisted it must use every tool available to keep the US homeland safe.
The Washington Post, citing a career intelligence officer, said the National Security Agency (NSA) had direct access to Internet firm servers, to track an individual's web presence via audio, video, photographs and emails.
Some of the biggest firms in Silicon Valley were caught up in the program, known as PRISM, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Apple, PalTalk, AOL, Skype and YouTube, the reports said.
Internet giants however denied opening their doors for US spy agencies.
In response to the reports, also carried by Britannia's Guardian newspaper, the White House said Americans were not being spied on, but did not deny the program existed.
Congress recently reauthorised the program under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "after extensive hearings and debate," the official added.
Claims of the Internet spy operation broke as Washington reeled from a Guardian newspaper report on Wednesday detailing an apparent operation by the NSA to capture millions of domestic phone records.
The American Civil Liberties Union branded the program, authorised by a top secret court order, as "beyond Orwellian."