German minister warns net users to avoid Google and Facebook which use US servers

Germany’s Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said to reporters from Die Welt today that “whoever fears their communication is being intercepted in any way should use services that don't go through American servers.”

The NSA data row continues to have diplomatic fallout. The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, was prevented from crossing European airspace after leaving Moscow, amidst suggestions that his plane may have been carrying private security contractor whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Bolivia’s foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, said: "We don't know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales."

After the Prism revelations came to light, Google issued a statement stating: "First, we have not joined any program that would give the US government – or any other government – direct access to our servers. Indeed, the US government does not have direct access or a 'back door' to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called Prism until yesterday."

It added: "Second, we provide user data to governments only in accordance with the law. Our legal team reviews each and every request, and frequently pushes back when requests are overly broad or don't follow the correct process."