VERIFIED 6 Jun 2013 · Leak No. 005

Snowden: the PRISM slides

Verified: Documented in primary records or confirmed by reputable inquiry/reporting.

Affected: NSA · United States

Leaker or group, as reported: Edward Snowden, as reported by The Guardian

A 41-slide NSA presentation described a program called Prism that collected communications from US internet companies. The companies named in the slides said they did not know of such a program.

Confirmed

The Guardian said it had verified the authenticity of the slides, which were marked top secret.

Claimed, disputed or not established

Whether the companies gave the NSA direct access to their servers was disputed from the start: the companies denied it, and the slides were a training briefing, not a legal description.

Reported impact

Opened the public debate on how internet-company data is collected, and fed allied cases such as Tempora (UK) and BND-NSA cooperation (Germany) on this site.

Sources (opened in a new tab)

The Guardian: NSA Prism program taps into user data of Apple, Google and others ↗https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data
The Guardian: Edward Snowden, NSA files source ↗https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

Connected

Agencies: NSA
Related case files: GCHQ “Tempora” and the Big Brother Watch ruling · Bundestag NSA inquiry: BND selectors and monitoring of allies
Related leaks: Snowden: the NSA's bulk phone-records order
Case board · Timeline (2013) · Document vault · How we verify leaks

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