“In 2013, a U.S. National Security Agency contractor named Edward Snowden leaked information to journalists that revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance capabilities extended far beyond what was previously known to the public. Specifically, the NSA was revealed to be able to directly tap into the systems of major telecommunications providers and large corporate software platforms to continually harvest information.
In one of the original reports on the leak, the Guardian revealed:
“The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple, and other US internet giants, according to a top-secret document obtained by the Guardian.
The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.””