The big news of the night is a bombshell Washington Post report that claims to reveal the U.S. government have been able to compel nine leading American Internet companies to provide data in a secret program.
The companies allegedly involved are Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple — though a number are now denying involvement.
While some companies reportedly began working with the program when it started in 2007, Congress is reported to have given the U.S. government the ability to compel a reluctant company to comply in 2008.
However, there's an interest angle here regarding Apple. As Ravi Somaiya of the New York Times points out, according to the Washington Post Apple managed to avoid complying until a point in 2012 — around six months after Steve Jobs death.
That's more than five years after Microsoft alegedly became the program's first corporate partner in May 2007. While there's no indication that Jobs was personally involved in the decision, it's certainly interesting timing.
Shortly after the PRISM report broke, Apple issued a denial of ever being involved in such a scheme: "We have never heard of PRISM. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order."