Washington ( CNN ) -- The National Security Agency does n't have access to servers run by Internet giants Google and Yahoo , its chief said in a pushback to a Washington Post report that the U.S. spy network taps into overseas data links to slurp up millions of text , video and audio records every day . But Gen. Keith Alexander 's comments at a cybersecurity conference Wednesday do n't appear to address the substance of the newspaper 's allegations -- that the NSA has found a way to tap into the data as it moves between servers around the world without many of the restrictions imposed by U.S. law and court oversight . Asked about the report by a Bloomberg Television reporter who interviewed him on stage at the conference , Alexander denied breaking into servers or databases run by Internet companies . `` Not to my knowledge , '' he said in response to a question about tapping into company databases . `` It would be illegal for us to do that . So , I do n't know what the report is , '' Alexander said . `` But I can tell you factually we do not have access to Google servers , Yahoo servers . We go through a court order . '' However , the allegations published by The Post -- based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden -- are n't that the NSA has hacked into data centers or databases owned by the companies . Instead , the newspaper -- citing the Snowden documents and unnamed `` knowledgeable officials '' -- reported that the NSA gets access to the data as it passes through vulnerable points overseas on its way to databases around the world . According to The Post , the NSA and the British Government Communications Headquarters found a way to exploit a weakness in Internet architecture to copy data as it moves from the public Internet into data centers maintained by the companies . The agency then uses custom-built software to decode the companies ' internal data formats and filter the resulting data for information it wants to collect , the newspaper reported . The material collected under the program -- code-named MUSCULAR -- includes e-mail addressing information , as well as `` content such as text , audio and video , '' according to The Post . The agency 's Fort Meade , Maryland , headquarters received 181,280,466 such records in the 30 days preceding the top-secret January 9 , 2013 , accounting on which The Post 's report is based , according to the newspaper . In a statement , the NSA said `` the assertion that we collect vast quantities of U.S. persons ' data from this type of collection is also not true . '' `` NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons , '' the agency said . It 's unclear how much of the material collected involves what the NSA calls `` U.S. persons , '' a category that includes U.S. citizens , permanent residents , groups predominantly made up of those groups and businesses incorporated in the United States . But unlike domestic programs that fall under restrictions imposed by law and the oversight of a secret court , surveillance conducted overseas falls under an executive order with less restrictive standards , The Post reported . The report raised concerns from Google and Yahoo , with the Internet behemoths saying they never gave the NSA permission to access communication links to their servers . `` We have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers , and we have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency , '' said Yahoo spokeswoman Sarah Meron . Google has `` long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping , which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links , '' said David Drummond , Google 's chief legal officer . `` We do not provide any government , including the U.S. government , with access to our systems . We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks , and it underscores the need for urgent reform . '' The newspaper report emerged a day after Alexander and James Clapper , the director of national intelligence , testified before a House committee reviewing the agency 's surveillance activities . The hearing , billed as a discussion of potential changes to the 35-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , commonly known as FISA , came after a report by the German magazine Der Spiegel that the NSA monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel 's cell phone . Some reports also suggest the United States carried out surveillance on French and Spanish citizens . Jim Sciutto reported from Washington ; Chelsea J. Carter reported and wrote from Atlanta . CNN 's Jeremy Harlan contributed to this report .
Gen. Keith Alexander says the NSA does n't break into computers , or networks . But The Washington Post reports that the NSA accesses data as it moves between countries . Alexander did n't bother to address that specific claim . The NSA later denies using the technique to ` ` collect vast quantities of U.S. persons ' data ''