The fallout of the NSA 'scandal' might have more of an effect on financial interests than political or civil right ones.
That is because, having heard the news, which are truly nothing new, since disclosure of the program had been detailed in several books years ago, the companies that had agreed to let the NSA mine information are now tripping over each other to reassure their clients by filing requests to disclose exactly what type of information the US agency was collecting.
In what is threatening to become an all out farce, Microsoft and Twitter have requested permission to reveal what data they are handing over to the NSA, under the FISA court orders that forced them to do so.
Are these companies afraid they will lose clients? And if so, where would the clients go? The way it looks so far, is that not too many people have abandoned the tech companies that provide them with social networks and other pastimes. The outrage, furthermore, if it is coming, is not that very loud. It seems that there is more posturing and agitating from politicians and third parties than the people whose information is being sucked up into those mega computers.
Google's chief legal officer, has already relesed a statement saying that the company has not allowed the NSA 'direct or indirect' access to its servers or to install equipment on its premises. But news have already revealed that Google was one of the first companies to adhere with the FISA court requests.
Furthermore, Google spokesman also added that "Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these [FISA court] requests falls far short of the claims being made." If that isn't supposed to confuse people, not much more will. And it is uncanny how naive these statements sound, especially since Google is trying to prove that it somehow did 'not' comply with information sharing requests.
But the article that ignited with firestorm related the lingo of double talk used that characterizes a lot of secret govt actions. The Guardian article, in fact, related that the NSA collected information is supposedly done through a 'dropbox' system, that allows them access to the Internet companies' servers at any time. This is called an 'indirect' access. In other words, the door is open, but we don't know when and if anyone let himself in.
The case of course, if fresh off the newsstand. It is a long shot to believe that anything major will occur to dispel people's fears, because in order to dispel them, revelations would have to be made that would compromise the 'secrecy' of the program. But if one man, acting not even withing the confines of US agency, can go on to leak and divulge this much information, whether it is correct or not, than the system is flawed like a giant castle of sand.
Op-Ed
Source : The Guardian UK
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