> First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. 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.

Right, but government-hired contractors are not 'the government'. So while this could be true, users' data could still be being intercepted.