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Minutes after the Washington Post published a report detailing how the US government tapped into the servers of nine companies to spy on communications, the denials began.
Apple Inc, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp led the charge, saying they don't give the government access to servers where the data is kept. Some said on Friday they don't hand over user information without a court order. Others said that they hadn't even heard of the US programme, code-named PRISM.
Even without companies' consent, academics and computer-security specialists say, there's a broad range of ways the government can harness the systems of the largest technology providers to snoop on email, photos and video chats coursing through the web.
"It's likely that the denials from these companies are literally true, but they don't tell the whole story," said Matthew Blaze, associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania.
The administration of President Barack Obama confirmed the existence of classified programmes to collect data on US residents' telephone calls and foreign nationals' internet activity on June 6, a day after the UK's Guardian newspaper reported on a secret court order compelling Verizon Communications Inc to provide the National Security Agency with data on customers' phone use. The Washington Post article was also published on June 6.
Obama has defended the practice, saying the government's efforts are "modest encroachments" on privacy legally authorised by Congress and important to thwarting terrorist attacks.
