SURVEILLANCE

Intel Chief Defends PRISM

Company executives admit only a few people would even know about it.

We all knew this was coming. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, on Saturday defended the top-secret program that allowed the government to spy on citizens through private cell phones, email, and other Internet companies. Although many of the companies named issued staunch denials last week, insiders admitted to the Washington Post that since the program was top secret, only a few people at the companies would even know about it. Anonymous executives said that PRISM was developed after negotiations with the federal government, and government employees cleared for PRISM access would “task” the system and receive the data without further interaction with the company’s staff. Well, that makes us feel so much better: at least the anonymous Facebook employee doesn’t know whose statuses we checked.