Surveillance Nets and the Collapse of Trust - The PRISM Case and the Corporate Backlash (2013)

Surveillance Nets and the Collapse of Trust - The PRISM Case and the Corporate Backlash (2013)

PRISM, exposed in 2013, was a mechanism for the U.S. government to obtain specific data from major companies such as Google and Microsoft based on legitimate requests. At the same time, however, the "MUSCULAR" program, in which the NSA and the UK's GCHQ eavesdrop on data centers without the cooperation of companies, was also revealed, leading to definite anger in Silicon Valley. The spread of satirical symbols of the NSA greatly damaged the relationship of trust between companies and the government.

At the time, surveillance authority was expanding due to the "War on Terror" after 9/11, and personal data was exploding due to the spread of social networking services and cloud computing. In the EU, the debate over "digital sovereignty" grew, leading to the GDPR and data transfer regulations. China and Russia criticized the U.S. double standards and used them to justify their own Internet controls.

Companies used the crisis as an opportunity to issue transparency reports and steer a course toward thorough encryption. Google and Yahoo have strengthened encryption of data center-to-data center communications, and Apple and Microsoft have expanded their encryption infrastructure. The PRISM incident was not merely a surveillance expose, but a turning point that fundamentally reexamined national security and privacy and the international data order. The PRISM case was not just a mere surveillance revelation.