So what is PRISM? PRISM is an electronic surveillance program, that has been run by the National Security Agency (NSA) since 2007. For years there have been speculation about the government being in bed with iPhone users through Apple and AT&T. Now it’s coming as wider shock-value as websites Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Skype, and Dropbox have all participated on some level. Recently, Verizon been asked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to hand over millions of users account information as well.

What really amazes me is the fact that all these companies seems to defend themselves, saying there are no backdoor programs that they partner with a government agency, but they do not mention PRISM in their responses, if they do they seem to act coy about the specifics of the PRISM program in relation to their organizations such Facebook, Google, among others.

What they all state is that they provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Their legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don’t follow the correct process, this seems to be correct as the US government has stated from James Clapper, “that for nearly 6 years the government of the United States had been using large internet services companies such as Google and Facebook to collect information on foreigners outside the U.S. as a defense against national security threats.”

By companies make false statements, or statements they avoid their participating on the PRISM spying program, was a damage control to protect the companies brand trust to make sure their consumers are aware their privacy and data is safe and secure, when its anything but safe and secure from government agencies all have access to it, based on a court order, which is exactly what PRISM entails. As Obama has stated on PRISM, they were legally authorized two programs not just PRISM and it was done so to help prevent terrorist attacks.

What’s really interesting is that the slideshows presented by The Washington Post seem to be tampered with and that they are incorrect in some of the information that is presented, but make no mistake about it, we are all being track through the websites, supposedly for terrorist attacks, which to keep our country safe it is needed at some level whether by the FBI or NSA.

If I was Facebook, Google, or any of these other companies I would just come clean about the organizations real involvement, as it will come out sooner or later the truth, and if they don’t admit to being in the bed with the US government they will lose their brand value and brand trust with consumers and partnerships alike.