Snowden Leaks Reveal NSA PRISM Program and Bulk Phone Metadata Collection

The Guardian and Washington Post published the first stories based on classified documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden on June 5-6, 2013, revealing that the NSA collected phone call records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers under a secret FISA court order and that the NSA collected internet communications from Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft through a program called PRISM under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong before his identity was revealed on June 9, provided journalists with 41 PRISM PowerPoint slides and additional documents showing the scope of NSA bulk collection. The disclosures ignited a global debate about mass surveillance, tech company cooperation with intelligence agencies, and the limits of Fourth Amendment protections in the digital age.