The following slide from the Washington Post is painful timeline of when major Internet companies joined PRISM, a program that has seen user data and other information directly passed to the United States government and its intelligence arms.
News of the program broke moments ago. For the Washington Post’s original story, head here. For TNW’s distillation and analysis of the information, this is your story. Here:
Microsoft has been part of PRISM for 2,095 days. Yahoo for 1,912 days. For shame.
Perhaps the only humorous part of the above image is the admission that PRISM costs a mere $20 million per year. Cheap at ten times the price. It’s almost sad that the lowering cost of computing power and storage makes a program like this so damned affordable. Also, the US government could invest in a few graphic designers.
Apple put up the largest fight against the government incursion, as TNW reported:
According to the report, Apple held out for five years after Microsoft became a part of PRISM. Google claims, according to the Post, that its disclosures remain “in accordance with the law.” To be clear, it appears that the complicity of each company involved varies, and the Post suggests that Apple resisted most.
The simple implication of that point is that Microsoft put up the least fight, given the two companies positions at opposite ends of the above timeline. I hope it rains in Redmond.
Top Image Credit: Steven Depolo
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