This is also what I sort of assume. All of these tech companies like facebook, and google, probably got so many requests for info from the feds that at a certai

This is also what I sort of assume. All of these tech companies like facebook, and google, probably got so many requests for info from the feds that at a certain point, it must have somehow made sense to switch it up and just give them an automated web form somewhere. (direct access to servers..) The telcos have probably had these since way back.. Eventually, there would be quite a few of these web forms, so some 'top' coders put together a system for the feds to query all of the forms at once with one request. Paint on a GUI and call it PRISM. It was nice to hear that Yahoo! still sorts out their fed requests by hand.