You are speaking these words as a matter of fact but you couldn't be more wrong. Government have access to this data by law when it's by a court order. Why is t

You are speaking these words as a matter of fact but you couldn't be more wrong. Government have access to this data by law when it's by a court order. Why is the first defence statement made that it's not done on US citizens? Because government will be pulled in court for this. And make no mistake, US companies can be pulled in court over this in foreign countries. So don't make flying statements like 'it was lawful' without understanding how court and executive branches balance each other. I agree with your point about existence of such algorithms. But we can certainly improvise. What you have written here is like saying that Facebook is just a message board. Of course, technologies exists. It's about how to utilize them and make them easily accessible. And again, there's no framework to force any communication channel. There's no law that data stored on servers cannot be encrypted. If it is lawful then there's no reason for Snowden to run and hide. In fact you are insinuating that what he has done is unlawful.