General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: WaPo Misread Powerpoint- Story on Feds tapping directly into internet companies was wrong & rushed [View all]dkf
(37,305 posts)Here is the corrected WAPO version:
From their workstations anywhere in the world, government employees cleared for PRISM access may task the system and receive results from an Internet company without further interaction with the companys staff.
According to a more precise description contained in a classified NSA inspector generals report, also obtained by The Post, PRISM allows collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations, rather than directly to company servers. The companies cannot see the queries that are sent from the NSA to the systems installed on their premises, according to sources familiar with the PRISM process.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-company-officials-internet-surveillance-does-not-indiscriminately-mine-data/2013/06/08/5b3bb234-d07d-11e2-9f1a-1a7cdee20287_print.html
Here is my laymans version:
So...there is govt owned equipment on all these companies premises that has stored what the company has stored. Thus when the govt retrieves the data it does so from the govt owned equipment, not directly from the company owned servers.
All your data is on government equipment. But they are supposed to use warrants to get the data from their equipment.
So the big scandal is that they said the government gets data from the company's servers. No they get it from a mirror of the companies servers. Big whoops.