Zuckerberg, Page use similar language to deny Facebook, Google participate in PRISM - The Tell - MarketWatch:
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Zuckerberg, Page use similar language to deny Facebook, Google participate in PRISM
June 7, 2013, 7:16 PM
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Larry Page took to the Internet Friday to deny that their companies participate in a program called PRISM — which gives the National Security Agency access to Internet communications — in posts with striking similarities in structure and wording.
- Bloomberg
- Mark Zuckerberg at a Facebook event in April.
The British newspaper the Guardian and the Washington Post reported Thursday that PRISM allows the NSA to tap directly into the servers of big tech firms including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Apple.
The PRISM program reports came on the heels of earlier disclosures about the NSA’s collection of data about millions of Verizon phone customers, as well as other phone companies.
President Obama on Friday defended the NSA’s collection of data, saying that it was crucial to anti-terrorism efforts and that it has been approved by all three branches of the federal government: the administration, Congress and the federal courts.
“Nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” Obama said. Obama added: “Now, with respect to the Internet and emails, this [monitoring program] does not apply to U.S. citizens, and it does not apply to people living in the United States.”
Page was joined by Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond in denying Google’s participation in the PRISM program with a post titled “What the…?”
Zuckerberg posted an update on his Facebook page.
The two statements use similar language and structure throughout, as can be seen in the side-by-side comparison below.
| Zuckerberg | Page, Drummond |
| 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 not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. |
| We hadn’t even heard of PRISM before yesterday. | We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday. |
| When governments ask Facebook for data, we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes and all applicable laws, and then only provide the information if is required by law. We will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure. | …we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process. |
| 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. | Until this week’s reports, we had never heard of the broad type of order that Verizon received—an order that appears to have required them to hand over millions of users’ call records. We were very surprised to learn that such broad orders exist. Any suggestion that Google is disclosing information about our users’ Internet activity on such a scale is completely false. |
| We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. | this episode confirms what we have long believed— there needs to be a more transparent approach. |
| It’s the only way to protect everyone’s civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term. | And, of course, we understand that the U.S. and other governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety—including sometimes by using surveillance. But the level of secrecy around the current legal procedures undermines the freedoms we all cherish. |
Page and Drummond also pointed out that Google regularly discloses general information about government requests for information and the outcomes of those requests.
– Tom Bemis
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