Infested with spies - the UK and the USA

From the UK Guardian:

UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation
The UK's electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence from the world's biggest internet companies through a covertly run operation set up by America's top spy agency, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

The documents show that GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, has had access to the system since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year.

The US-run programme, called Prism, would appear to allow GCHQ to circumvent the formal legal process required to seek personal material such as emails, photos and videos from an internet company based outside the UK.

The use of Prism raises ethical and legal issues about such direct access to potentially millions of internet users, as well as questions about which British ministers knew of the programme.

And this -- also from the UK Guardian:

NSA PRISM program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others
The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.

The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called PRISM, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says.

The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation � classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies � which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers.

Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program.

In a statement, Google said: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data."

Several senior tech executives insisted that they had no knowledge of PRISM or of any similar scheme. They said they would never have been involved in such a program. "If they are doing this, they are doing it without our knowledge," one said.

An Apple spokesman said it had "never heard" of PRISM.

Apple wants to remain at the top of its heap and squash possible upstart competitors just as they were once an upstart themselves. Now that they have arrived, they are willing to lay down with anyone to preserve their position as top dog. Same thing with Google. Same thing with FaceBook. Same thing with Skype. Same thing with YouTube. This is called Crony Capitalism and is what is tearing this nation down; no longer can a couple of people working in a basement or garage expect to come up with an idea, build it, market it and become wealthy. Now they cannot compete with the entrenched businesses or deal with the bureaucratic web of regulations put in place by the lobbyists working for the crony capitalists.