U.S. paid millions to Google, Facebook and other expenses related to espionage

The National Security Agency U.S. (NSA) paid millions of dollars to large Internet companies, including Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft and Facebook, to compensate for the costs related to requests for monitoring information, as reported by the newspaper 'The Guardian'. The newspaper, citing new documents provided by former CIA technician Edward Snowden, said that in this way the first test financial linkage between these internet companies and U.S. spy programs. These additional costs have to do with the new requirements imposed by the FISA Court , established by Act Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) and responsible for authorizing and supervising the activities of the NSA, which declared unconstitutional the Prism program, surveillance, in 2011. The suspension was decided after news that the NSA intercepted thousands of emails that violated the privacy of persons unrelated to terrorism. This forced the agency to change the way we collect electronic information.

Ensuring a legal framework

Thereafter, the agency began to request that the FISA Court sign it "certifications" annually to ensure a legal framework for such surveillance operations, although these were renewed only temporarily. "The problems of last year resulted in multiple extensions of the maturity dates of the certificates, causing billion costs to providers monitoring program to implement each of the following extensions. Such costs were provided by Special Resource Operations, "said one of the NSA's internal documents, dated in late 2012. Snowden told The Guardian that this body Special Resource Operations is the "crown jewel" . Coordinates all spy programs based on "corporate partnerships" with telecom companies and ISPs that provide access to communications data.

The role of the computer giants

Before disclosing new revelations, the British newspaper asked several of these companies about their role in these programs and whether they had received any financial compensation by the NSA. A spokesman for Yahoo! explained that "Federal law requires the U.S. government to reimburse all costs incurred providers to respond to mandatory legal procedures." "We have requested these reimbursements in accordance with the law," said Yahoo!, but eluded confirm their participation and role in these programs. For its part, Facebook said, also through a spokesman, that "never received compensation in relation to its compliance with a request of government data." Google issued a general declaration that "denied having joined the program Prism or other espionage," says The Guardian. After publishing this article, Microsoft said the British newspaper that "only complies with court orders because it is legally required and not because it compensated for the work".