Facebook Denies Giving NSA Direct Access To Its Servers

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/06/06/facebook-denies-giving-nsa-direct-access-to-its-servers/?utm_campaign=forbestwittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

by _pius • 13 years ago

142 20 13 years ago

forbes.com

coldcode• 13 years ago

They have to. The first rule of NSL is you don't talk about NSL. Until someone decides to be a Bradley and show and tell.

kvb2• 13 years ago

Are they required to deny it, or just not to divulge it?

Andrenid• 13 years ago

Considering the punishment by admitting it, and the "silence means you're guilty" thing that happens most of the time, I'd say they're pretty much left with no option other than to deny it even if it's a lie.

rosser• 13 years ago

Facebook's response is the quintessential non-denial denial. Deny doing something you weren't actually accused of doing, but that sounds enough like it, so that you don't have to deny doing the thing you actually did.

foobarqux2• 13 years ago

The statements released by the companies (especially Apple and Facebook) are similar enough that they may be crafted talking points supplied by the government.

kvb2• 13 years ago

And this one http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2013/Jun13/06-06st...?

chaostheory• 13 years ago

Yes, they deny giving them direct access to their servers, but they admit that they will give them user data when it's requested.

The title is pretty misleading. Facebook isn't denying anything.

mgiampapa• 13 years ago

How do you prove a negative?

rhizome2• 13 years ago

Why would FB give the NSA direct access? FB employs plenty of people with sufficient skills to send the desired information over when needed.

bane• 13 years ago

Because the NSA may not want FB to know who exactly they're interested in.

rhizome2• 13 years ago

"Just give us everything." "OK"

jjoe• 13 years ago

No direct access to servers is needed when you can sniff it all up at the wire on premises. Nice play on words...

skcin7• 13 years ago

"no direct access" Of course the gov't didn't have raw dumps to the SQL databases, they have their own neat little front end web application that Facebook provides to them.

codezero• 13 years ago

But did Facebook have direct access to a NSA data dump, to which they were required by law to send data?

t0dd• 13 years ago

"Protecting the privacy of our users and their data is a top priority for Facebook." -- and here comes the cue for the sitcom audience to start laughing.

adventured2• 13 years ago

Like everybody else, I'm amused by the direct access phrasing.

Obviously the NSA doesn't have direct access. They don't need it, and wouldn't want it. If they had it, they couldn't have put together these nice convenient PR packets for times like this.

What the NSA most likely has, is signed assurances of data integrity, and unlimited API access.

The most important aspect to lying, is the intent to deceive, it binds all forms of lying together. What matters in the blanket denials being issued by all the companies, is their intent to deceive. Is it a lie when they say they don't give direct access to the NSA? Perhaps not, but their intent is deception, and that's what matters.

junto• 13 years ago

I'm wondering if the name of the project is a clue. Maybe they don't need access to the structured data. Maybe they just split the fiber optical stream using a 'prism' and pipe the output to Fort Meade.

In which case, Facebook are not lying when they say that the NSA don't have access to their servers, but they do have access to their network traffic.

Facebook Denies Giving NSA Direct Access To Its Servers

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