REPORT: The Federal Government Wants To Know Your Account Passwords

The report is frustratingly thin on details.

But it represents an even worse scenario than the one posited by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, who claimed the feds have a program named PRISM that gives them access to the servers of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other major web providers. The companies have denied that such a program exists, saying they only respond to specific legal requests about individuals.

Legal demands for password, as reported by CNET, go beyond the mere one-time production of data from a users' account, of course. On Google, for instance, once someone has the password to your Gmail account they've got lengthy access to your calendar, search history, Drive docs, Gmail chats, and maybe your Google+ account.

CNET reports the unnamed companies have pushed back on the demands.