NSA paid tech companies millions to cover PRISM costs

The US National Security Agency has paid technology companies millions of dollars to cover the cost of handing over emails and other electronic communications to the federal government.

The companies, which include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, have been cooperating with the NSA in running its PRISM surveillance program, the Guardian reported based on documents it received from whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The documents, which shed light on millions of dollars paid by the NSA, represent the first evidence of a financial relationship between the agency and the Internet companies.

The NSA made such payments after a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court ruling in October 2011 found that the spy agency was gathering thousands of Americans’ emails and other electronic communications illegally.

The FISA court ruling did not concern the PRISM program directly but in the wake of this ruling, the NSA had to issue new certifications for the Internet companies to continue their cooperation, which cost the agency a significant amount of money.

“Last year’s problems resulted in multiple extensions to the certifications’ expiration dates, which cost millions of dollars for PRISM providers to implement each successive extension — costs covered by Special Source Operations,” an NSA newsletter from last December said of the situation.

“Microsoft only complies with court orders because it is legally ordered to, not because it is reimbursed for the work,” a spokesperson for Microsoft told the Guardian. “We could have a more informed discussion of these issues if providers could share additional information, including aggregate statistics on the number of any national security orders they may receive.”

Documents leaked by Snowden have blown the lid on top-secret spying programs run by the US government including PRISM for tracking the use of US-based web servers by people around the world.

US officials, including President Barack Obama, have repeatedly defended the government’s massive surveillance, claiming it protects Americans against what they call “terrorist attacks.”