What's the problem with PRISM?

WASHINGTON (AP):

When the federal government went looking for phone numbers tied to terrorists, it grabbed the records of just about everyone in America.

Why every phone number?

"Well, you have to start someplace," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told NBC News yesterday.

That breadth, that willingness to sweep up enormous information on Americans with no ties to terrorists, is making it hard for the Obama administration to tamp down controversy over a separate program, called PRISM, to monitor Internet traffic.

In short, critics ask, if looking for terrorists means collecting every American's phone records, how can anyone believe the president when he says Americans aren't being monitored on the Internet?

"These things are very narrowly circumscribed," Obama said. "They're very focused."

The Internet programme came to light last week in documents published by The Washington Post and Guardian newspapers. It allows the NSA to reach into the data streams of US companies, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and others, and grab emails, video chats, pictures and more.

Just how much the government seizes is unclear. Clapper says it is narrowly focused on foreign targets, and technology companies say they turn over only information that's required by court order.