[evgen]

"Participating" covers a broad range of activity when it comes to this program, and would include things like having a portal to provide the legally mandated info that must be returned upon proper presentation of a warrant. Is it really 'sharing data with the government' if the latter shows up with a properly executed warrant for the data?

[sneak]

PRISM data is obtained without a warrant, even for USians whose data is supposed to be protected by a warrant, because of a special secret interpretation of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) Section 702.

It's warrantless, and the court that decides whether or not it's legal is itself classified and unaccountable and almost never denies surveillance.

This abuse was cited by Ed Snowden as one of the reasons he came forward. It's a public law, but a secret interpretation by a secret court that cannot be challenged by the people to which it applies.

It's not inaccurate to describe it as a military coup, given that it allows the US intelligence community to surveil everyone in the legislature and judiciary.

[lern_too_spel]

Section 702 only allows them to request data from accounts that belong to foreigners outside the US, so no, it doesn't allow the US intelligence community to surveil everyone in the legislature and judiciary.