Much has been made of the carefully-worded "direct access to servers."
I really do doubt that Google gives the NSA a shell login. It's also completely truthful that Larry Page never heard of Prism (it was a TS/SCI program, of course he wouldn't know what it's called.)
But giving the NSA a special "Spy-only portal" which allows the NSA to type in "Show me everything in Mr. X's Google+ profile" is not direct access, and could be given within 5 minutes of getting the legal request.
Much has been made of the carefully-worded "direct access to servers."
I really do doubt that Google gives the NSA a shell login. It's also completely truthful that Larry Page never heard of Prism (it was a TS/SCI program, of course he wouldn't know what it's called.)
But giving the NSA a special "Spy-only portal" which allows the NSA to type in "Show me everything in Mr. X's Google+ profile" is not direct access, and could be given within 5 minutes of getting the legal request.