Slashdot Mirror
FCC Declines To Probe Disclosure of Phone Records
An anonymous reader writes "News.com reports that the FCC won't be investigating the phone record disclosures by communications companies under US government pressure. Despite a congressional request for that probe, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin quashed the inquiry based on comments from National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell. 'At issue are reports last year that some big telephone companies allowed the U.S. government access to millions of telephone records for an antiterrorism program. The reports have prompted scrutiny by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Democratic Rep. Edward Markey, the chairman of a key Energy and Commerce subcommittee, asked Martin to investigate. Markey, of Massachusetts, said McConnell's stance was "unsurprising given that this administration has continually thwarted efforts by Congress to shed more light on the surveillance program."'"
.. Amdocs , an Israel company and has ALL records perfect for phone data mining. Great for the intelligence community. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUXFHON_v9o Still want to have a SUBSCRIPTION service where they can know everything about you? I strongly recommend VoIP abroad or subscriptionless mobiles if you value your privacy.
http://www.rense.com/general79/wdx1.htm
Wtf? Dude, are you going to keep reposting this comment with the middle portion changed to every privacy story? I have mod points but I am not entirely sure if I should mod you down. I will let the other mods decide. :|
Congress is going to respond to this continued emasculation with a painstakingly measured combination of harsh words and sulking.
The simple fact is that talking on any phone, cellular in particular, is not private. If you think it is you are delluding yourself. As a comm tech in the 80's we routinely monitored voice traffic for amusement purposes. The things you hear are mind boggling! People talk on the phone about the most private and illegal things. Why oh why would anyone ever discuss something on an unsecure medium that they don't want anyone to know is beyond me. I remember years ago some congressional members cell call with some embarrassing content was recorded and made public. Yeah...it was illegal and the people that recorded it were charged....but still, why would anyone thinks that a phone call is private. It doesn't matter whether the administration and congress ban monitoring or not. It will still happen. The only difference then is it wont be admissable in court. But then if you're a member of a terrorist organization bent on death and destruction the people listening are planning on sending you to a higher court. :)
Impeach the imbecile who appointed him.
the telco has the right to use that information as they wish
Wrong! Just because you agreed to their terms of service does not mean you should not expect privacy from them. This is simply hogwash. They have only the right use that information in the process of billing you.
Whether Clinton's executive order is right or not, is relevant, but in the current circumstances, the current administration is so far over the top in these matters, it is imperative to our survival as a democratic society to know the extent of these violations of privacy. Even if it turns out that all of these instances are not breaking the law, they are certainly violations committed by a government out of control against its own populace.
Of course it's not worth it to them, they probably knew about it already, may have participated in it and are beholden (at least the director) to the current administration. Congress should not be delegating it to them as they cannot be trusted to perform properly. This should be performed by an independent committee outside of administration control.
They better fight it on all fronts, including the court of public opinion because the public should be outraged whether or not this is technically illegal. If not it should be.
Tip of the iceberg syndrome, and the thing is ... they're still managing to hide the tip! We know there's an iceberg, we know we're about to plow right into it, Titanic-style ... but we can't actually see it.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Good luck with that. Congress requested the investigation. It still got blocked.
Sure, we can vote out the politicians, but the bureaucracy will continue, regardless of which party happens to be in power.
What we NEED to do is purge the bureaucracy every decade or so. And not just the top few administrative types -- everyone. Bring new people and new ideas in at all levels.
Also, making it ridiculously easy to fire a government employee would help as well. I think they're moving the right direction with their new personnel program that will base pay on performance, rather than simply grade and step. Of course, from what I've seen, people will still write their own performance reviews, which will be rubber-stamped approved, and will keep the system as broken as it was before, with the honest and hard-working still getting screwed by their lazy and indifferent coworkers.
Anecdotal: There was a lady in our building, came in to fill a GS 9 position. After 8 months of doing nothing but running her mouth about how great she was at doing stuff and taking credit for everyone else's work (and proving her utter incompetence to those working around her) she moved to a different section to fill a GS 11 job. Two months over there it became apparent to all those above her that she could not do the job, and since she'd pissed everyone around her off by taking credit for their work, they (and me) were unwilling to do anything that might help her. Did her incompetence and inability to do her job get her fired, or demoted down to a skill level she could do? NO! They move her into a different department, and promote her again to a GS 12! She's still floundering, and unable to do her job, and her reputation preceded her so she gets absolutely no help from her coworkers, but they can't get rid of her, and can't put her back in a GS 7 or GS 9 job that matches her abilities.
As a DoD contractor, I get to see at least part of the ugly game that is government service. The politics and backstabbing are worse than anywhere else I've been. The lazy and incompetent are promoted and shuffled around to be "someone else's problem" while those that produce tend to get kept where they are, because "they're too valuable to lose to a different section/department." The object of the game is not to serve the people (troops, directly in our case) or the country. The object of the game is to get as much money for doing as little work as possible. I'd hope its different elsewhere, but it appears this is the case across the DoD, which isn't exactly a small slice of the government service pie.
So, in essence, the telco has every right to provide this information to the federal gov't if they want to (whether it's in their own best interest or not).
Sorry, you're wrong. Please see Section 222 of the Communications Act.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode47/usc_sec_47_00000222----000-.html
Here, allow me to quote.
Every telecommunications carrier has a duty to protect the confidentiality of proprietary information of, and relating to, other telecommunication carriers, equipment manufacturers, and customers, including telecommunication carriers reselling telecommunications services provided by a telecommunications carrier.
:(){