US government snoops on users of Google, Facebook, Skype and more

摘要

Surveillance of the internet by the US government is widespread and intrusive, giving American security agencies the power to collect information on nearly everything we do online.The revelations came from a series of leaked documents obtained by the Guardian from whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former CIA analyst.The vast reach of US intelligence agencies gives them direct access to the servers of Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Skype and others, collecting huge volumes of data.Through the surveillance program, called Prism, the National Security Agency (NSA) collects search histories, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, according to the leaked documents. As well as giving access to the online lives of Americans, the system can also be used to obtain data on anyone who uses web services that are part of the snooping program.