Around about the time when people started rolling out SSL as standard. That'd make sense, as they'd need to move their beam-splitters (prisms!) to behind the SS

Around about the time when people started rolling out SSL as standard. That'd make sense, as they'd need to move their beam-splitters (prisms!) to behind the SSL endpoints. I think PRISM is just the public-private partnership aspect of this, where they have to go to service providers and install kit, as they can't tap SSL traffic.