According to Bloomberg news, thousands of American firms of science and technology, finance and manufacturing are exchanging confidential information with U.S. national security agencies. In return for sensitive information, the American government is letting these firms access classified data.

Photo of Edward Snowden

These programs are far beyond what Edward Snowden revealed. Earlier last week, The Guardian revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting millions of U.S. residents’ telephone records and the computer communications from IT giants including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple. These companies cover the vast majority of online email, search, video and communications networks.

These American?hardware and software firms, banks, Internet security providers, satellite telecom companies and many other companies, known as trusted partners, have accords with the U.S. government on the information-exchange programs. The information gathered in some cases might be used not just to defend the nation but to help infiltrate computers of its adversary countries and companies.

According to the people who have worked with the government or in the companies that have these agreements, the CIA and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and branches of the U.S. military?had agreements with such companies to collect data that could be highly useful for U.S. intelligence or cyber warfare units.