It is a fact that they don't need individual court orders to obtain communications.
As to "obtaining targeted communications without having to request them from the service providers", here's a quote by Gellman:
> In another classified report obtained by The Post, the arrangement is described as allowing “collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,” rather than directly to company servers.
Regardless of whether it is actually accurate, that is what the NSA documents stated.
I think the whole "direct access" argument over semantics is a red herring and completely irrelevant by now.
> It is a fact that they don't need individual court orders to obtain communications.
Statements like these have no information value unless you back them up. For all I know, you learned this from the "The Guardian" article I just cited.
> [...] allowing “collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations [...]
I don't think a statement about having write access to your own hardware pertains to this discussion, even if that hardware is located in Steve Ballmer's office.
As to "obtaining targeted communications without having to request them from the service providers", here's a quote by Gellman:
> In another classified report obtained by The Post, the arrangement is described as allowing “collection managers [to send] content tasking instructions directly to equipment installed at company-controlled locations,” rather than directly to company servers.
Regardless of whether it is actually accurate, that is what the NSA documents stated.
I think the whole "direct access" argument over semantics is a red herring and completely irrelevant by now.