No, they never made that argument because they don't grab and store all packets. Instead, they stored the metadata extracted from these packets (the sender and receiver). This program has ended prior to Snowden's leaks according to his documents, but the telephone pen register collection was still ongoing.
The utah data center is their buffer. And they were storing large amounts of traffic because they had their diffie-helman hack.
No, this was public Internet, at places like Room 641A. There was nothing in the leaks suggesting they had spliced private fiber.
I've talked to Google engineers about this. They spliced private fiber. Google was smart enough to encrypt anything routed over public internet, but thought that their private WAN was safe until the disclosures.
The Utah data center hadn't even been constructed at the time of Snowden's leaks, so obviously there was no evidence for that in the leaks.
And they were storing large amounts of traffic because they had their diffie-helman hack.
Again, there was no evidence that they were doing this in the leaks. The leaks said that they did full take data collection only in a specific set of regions like Afghanistan.
I've talked to Google engineers about this. They spliced private fiber.
Those engineers simply misread the leaks. What they did was insert their network analyzers in places like Room 641A, next door to an IX where subsea cables connect to private routers. These cables pass through that room first. No splicing required. If you look at the third slide in the PRISM/US-984XN deck, you can see that this happens only on international infrastructure like these subsea cables, not on purely domestic DC to DC links.
The engineers I've talked to did not misread the leaks and found non public information confirming it. The diffie-hellman stuff has explicit evidence in the leaks. Yes, the Utah data center is newer than the leaks. It was created because total traffic was expanding and they required more storage.
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The utah data center is their buffer. And they were storing large amounts of traffic because they had their diffie-helman hack.
I've talked to Google engineers about this. They spliced private fiber. Google was smart enough to encrypt anything routed over public internet, but thought that their private WAN was safe until the disclosures.
The Utah data center hadn't even been constructed at the time of Snowden's leaks, so obviously there was no evidence for that in the leaks.
Again, there was no evidence that they were doing this in the leaks. The leaks said that they did full take data collection only in a specific set of regions like Afghanistan.
Those engineers simply misread the leaks. What they did was insert their network analyzers in places like Room 641A, next door to an IX where subsea cables connect to private routers. These cables pass through that room first. No splicing required. If you look at the third slide in the PRISM/US-984XN deck, you can see that this happens only on international infrastructure like these subsea cables, not on purely domestic DC to DC links.
Please, just stop.
The engineers I've talked to did not misread the leaks and found non public information confirming it. The diffie-hellman stuff has explicit evidence in the leaks. Yes, the Utah data center is newer than the leaks. It was created because total traffic was expanding and they required more storage.