14 Facts About PRISM

PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency collects internet communications from various U S internet companies.

PRISM collects stored internet communications based on demands made to internet companies such as Google LLC under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms.

PRISM began in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect America Act under the Bush Administration.

PRISM is a program from the Special Source Operations division of the NSA, which in the tradition of NSA's intelligence alliances, cooperates with as many as 100 trusted U S companies since the 1970s.

PRISM was enabled under President Bush by the Protect America Act of 2007 and by the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunizes private companies from legal action when they cooperate with U S government agencies in intelligence collection.

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Several lawmakers declined to discuss PRISM, citing its top-secret classification, and others said that they had not been aware of the program.

Original Washington Post and Guardian articles reporting on PRISM noted that one of the leaked briefing documents said PRISM involves collection of data "directly from the servers" of several major internet services providers.

PRISM said that it would continue to seek government permission to publish the number and extent of FISA requests.

PRISM suggested creating an advocate with security clearance who would argue against government filings.

Michael Daly of The Daily Beast stated that even though Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who conducted the Boston Marathon bombing with his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, had visited the Al Qaeda-affiliated Inspire magazine website, and even though Russian intelligence officials had raised concerns with U S intelligence officials about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, PRISM did not prevent him from carrying out the Boston attacks.

PRISM called Congress "derelict in giving that much power to the government, " and said that had he been elected president, he would have ordered searches only when there was probable cause of a crime having been committed, which he said was not how the PRISM program was being operated.

PRISM stated that internet spying can make people feel reluctant to access intimate and private information that is important to them.

FISA Amendments Act Section 702 is referenced in PRISM documents detailing the electronic interception, capture and analysis of metadata.

Some SIGADs, like PRISM, collect data at the ISP level, but others take it from the top-level infrastructure.