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Since the story of how government agencies have been tracking information through major sources of technology came out, privacy has become a major issue on the web.

Edward Snowden has once again released crucial documents showing the United States efforts to spy on citizens from around the world. This time it shows the astonishing $52.6 billion dollar price tag for PRISM and other connected programs.

The Internet has exploded with activity this morning, after dual articles were released by the Guardian and The Washington Post about a secret government project called PRISM.

A month ago TheGuardian released a story that claimed the US Postal Service had been part of a program similar to PRISM. But the claims were never officially confirmed, and so it remained a fairly obscure accusation. That is until today, when the New York Times confirmed the rumors and the existence of the program.

There has been a great deal of news lately involving the rights to citizen privacy. It is a hot button issue that is becoming all the more intense as details of government surveillance programs in the US, UK and France continue to be unveiled. But Google is under fire for more than PRISM, with European watchdogs demanding they change their privacy policy, or risk legal action.

"A hidden application found on millions of smartphones can log almost everything a user does, claims a US security researcher."

While there has been a lot of speculation about just how much technology companies were contributing to government surveillance as part of PRISM, Microsoft has denied any real violations for customers. For awhile they even denied having knowledge that the program existed. But now details have emerged thanks to secret files that paint a very different picture.

As is so often the case these days, yet more details have been leaked by Edward Snowden about the National Security Agency's surveillance efforts.

Speaking directly to consumers who are concerned about their lack of privacy in the wake of the NSA's continued surveillance, Microsoft released a statement on their official blog this morning. They are officially speaking out about this, and other privacy matters related to government spying.

Eight major technology companies have banded together to ask President Barack Obama to reform the current US intelligence operations that have led to massive data collection with next to no legal oversight.

President Obama has reportedly met with the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. The five person review board is responsible for overseeing the NSA and related agencies, in order to enact new policy and create oversight for the unchecked surveillance branch.

Reports that the US and UK's NSA and GCHQ organizations gained access to the encryption keys of SIM chip maker Gemalto has once again underlined the reach and global nature of modern government surveillance.

An interesting blog post has been making the rounds on Twitter this morning. It was written by Loren Sands-Ramshaw, a self-proclaimed former employee of the NSA. In it, he offers an inside look over agency's policies, and how he feels about everything currently going on related to the spying scandal.