Want a good, rational, technical discussion of how PRISM (appears) to work?

[Rosco T.]

Go here..

https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

scroll down to -

Episode #408 | 12 Jun 2013
The State of Surveillance (How the NSA's PRISM program works.)

you can listen, you can read a transcript.

[Jarla]

1. It sounds like the NSA is wiretapping the fiber optic cables that connect to Google, Yahoo, etc.

They are making and saving copies of all of the data that we send out over the Internet to Google before it reaches Google's servers. The podcast hosts explain it as an "upstream tap."

[Rosco T.]

3. Which, if true...

.. means Google, Yahoo, etc.. really DIDN'T know it was happening or were co-operating.

ATT is another story.

[Jarla]

5. So do they need a warrant to wiretap a company's fiber optic lines upstream?

I'm not sure they'd even need to give a search warrant to Google, since the data isn't exactly Google's "property" until it reaches Google's servers. They might need to give a warrant to Google's ISP, though. But if the ISP is willing to cooperate, then a warrant probably isn't necessary.

[Jarla]

6. And does the gov. need a warrant to look at data on its own computers?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Some of this is updated Carnivore

Some is good old fashioned echelon.

[RainDog]

4. kicking to find later n/t