[falk]

Read these for more information on the six months rule. It's rather ridiculous and I didn't believe it when I first heard about it.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/10/ecpa-turns-twenty-f... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stored_Communications_Act

[diminoten]

Okay, but how does this make Google incapable of saying they didn't know the NSA had direct access to their data?

[rhizome]

Because they, and the other companies who used the exact same terminology, never said what they meant by "direct."

[diminoten]

You'll have to really connect the dots for me here, I guess I'm just not getting how the 6 month rule has anything to do with the meaning of "direct".