President Barack Obama defended US spy agency programs which trawl phone and Internet data as a \u201cmodest encroachment\u201d on privacy which were needed to keep Americans safe from terrorism.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody is listening to your telephone calls,\u201d Obama said, seeking to quell public disquiet after two days of explosive revelations hinting at the scope of a vast and classified government data mining operation.<\/p>\n
Obama, in San Jose, California, hit out at what he said was \u201chype\u201d over reports the National Security Agency (NSA) logs details of millions of domestic calls, for possible later use in anti-terror operations.<\/p>\n
He also defended a program called PRISM, in which NSA and FBI agents are tapping into the servers of nine US Internet giants, including Facebook, Google, YouTube, Apple and others, as they try to subvert terror plots originating abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does not apply to US citizens. And it does not apply to people living in the United States,\u201d Obama said.<\/p>\n
Civil liberties and privacy groups have raised alarm at the two programs, reported by the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, warning they are \u201cOrwellian\u201d and could be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
Obama said he welcomed the debate, but warned the programs had previously been kept under wraps to avoid tipping off America\u2019s enemies, and said they made only \u201cmodest encroachments\u201d on privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to recognize that you can\u2019t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We\u2019re going to have to make some choices as a society,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He repeatedly argued that Congress had been kept fully apprised of the activity and had voted to authorize it. Federal and secret intelligence courts were also used to ensure that the authorities were not abused, he said.<\/p>\n
The Washington Post, citing a career intelligence officer, reported late Thursday the NSA had direct access to Internet firm servers to track an individual\u2019s web presence via audio, video, photographs and emails.<\/p>\n
The paper said the leak came from an officer \u201cwith firsthand experience of these systems and horror at their capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,\u201d the officer was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
Internet giants, however, denied opening their doors for US spy agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never heard of PRISM,\u201d said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling.<\/p>\n
Facebook\u2019s chief security officer Joe Sullivan said the huge social network did not provide any access to government organizations.<\/p>\n
Experts said the program could be so close-held that only lawyers at the firms or a small number of administrators might know about it, or it could be going on covertly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is something deeply mysterious about this,\u201d said Joseph Hall, senior technologist with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights activist group.<\/p>\n
Later Friday, Obama met Chinese President Xi Jinping, and despite possible embarrassment over the exposed US surveillance programs, raised the need for new \u201crules of the road\u201d following reports China is engaged on a vast cyber spying operation aimed at the US military and businesses.<\/p>\n
The White House denied that the drama of the last few days would undercut Obama\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a pretty good illustration of the type of conversation we want to have about respecting civil liberties and protecting the constitutional rights of the people that you govern,\u201d White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the president did was he put in place a very strict oversight regime, one that he strengthened when he took office \u2014 one that constrained his own ability, constrained his own authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that is a testament to the strength of our system of government,\u201d Earnest said aboard Air Force One.<\/p>\n
Claims of the Internet spy operation broke as Washington reeled from a Guardian newspaper report on Wednesday detailing an apparent operation by the NSA to capture millions of domestic phone records.<\/p>\n
Internet giants deny granting US government \u2018direct access\u2019 to servers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Internet tapping aimed at non-US people: official<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n