Above image is the actual diagram, though simple, of the MUSCULAR project. Including the sarcastic smiley face. This project is a partnership between the NSA and the UK’s GCHQ that infiltrates the communication between Google’s and Yahoo’s data centers across the world. Visit the following link from The Washington Post for all the details, it is pretty compelling.
The good news is that these companies that we rely on everyday are starting to question Congress as well as trying to find ways to encrypt the data stream so that the NSA will not be able to parse through all the communications coming and going from their data centers.