I think Medium goes off the tracks just a little here. I want to point out a couple of obvious things.
1. Prism is not necessarily the only way they get data. There is nothing ruling out having an expedited system of getting requests sent, and having some sort of access.
2. "Directly from the servers of...." can only be reasonably read one way. There is no reasonable reading of the slide which puts it in line with the NYT story.
I think it is therefore necessary to note three possibilities:
“the servers” could be read many ways. Doesn't necessarily mean direct access to all their data. Doesn't mean unilateral access as alleged. The slides we have don't give enough detail to allege direct and unilateral access. Especially in light of companies, NSA, NYT sources all denying this.
"Directly from" means direct access, "the servers of" means the servers controlled by. That's the only plausible reading. The thing is it doesn't necessarily mean "all of the servers of" however indirect or mediated access would be contrary to the slide's plain language, and if these were mediating servers controlled by the other company that would be quite misleading to the NSA employee audience.
1. Prism is not necessarily the only way they get data. There is nothing ruling out having an expedited system of getting requests sent, and having some sort of access.
2. "Directly from the servers of...." can only be reasonably read one way. There is no reasonable reading of the slide which puts it in line with the NYT story.
I think it is therefore necessary to note three possibilities:
1. The NYT story is wrong.
2. The slide author was wrong.
3. NSA uses both these methods.