The Washington Post first reported that the NSA and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) had connecting Yahoo and Google鈥檚 overseas servers, according to documents leaked by Snowden. The two agencies had been copying e-mails and other information passing between the big data centers, the documents said. Both tech giants said that they had suspected that the agencies might be snooping but had not consented to the agencies鈥� secret oversight.
Why is this important? The incident highlighted the vast reach of the NSA and its British counterpart, suggesting that the agencies could spy on even tech powerhouses with formidable defenses in place. In the days after the news, Yahoo and Google, as well as other major data collectors such as Facebook and Twitter, expressed outrage at the revelations and said they would create stronger bulwarks against prying government eyes.
