Deutsche Telekom Secretly Tracked Phone Calls

Dekortage writes "German telephone giant Deutsche Telekom has admitted to secretly tracking the phone calls between board members and journalists, in an effort to identify media leaks about internal affairs. As noted by the German Journalists' Association, 'This company has special access to the records of its customers.... That means it has a special obligation to be trustworthy.' DT denies having eavesdropped; it merely tracked the calls dialed."

Comments

The Solution

[imyy4u3]

"Hello."
"Hey, what's up?"
"Well, I'm a board member, and they're tracking our calls now, so I can't call you at (insert newspaper name here)'s HQ from the office anymore, and that's why I'm calling you from a pay phone."
"OK, just meet me at the coffee shop at 7pm tonight."
"Sure."

Problem solved. Idiots.

Re:The Solution

[maxume]

It's always the men in suits that ruin the atmosphere.

Re:The Solution

[oodaloop]

Having done phone call analysis for the government, this is hardly a viable solution. Multiple calls from a pay phone would stick out like a sore thumb in this day and age.

Re:The Solution

[Mark Trade]

Actually, if you know that you are subject of surveillance, you have a whole arsenal of methods to evade from it. It you aren't, and that's the sneaky little problem with it, you are an open book.

Oh, and they did not only monitor outgoing calls in the company HQ. They tracked all phone calls they were servicing in the whole country and then ran searches against business and private phone numbers of known journalists and employees. So not even at home you were secure.

This just in!

[Ngarrang]

A major corporation providing a necessary public service mis-uses those records for personal reasons! Film at 11!

Okay, is anyone else not surprised to read this? Do any you have actually think that your local telecom ACTUALLY respects your privacy and doesn't do funny things with your data?

Sure, this was only on its own executives. But doing this to faceless subscribers is not a far leap of the imagination.

Re:This just in!

[Tom]

Yes, I think that. Mostly because I work at the local telecom company. :-)

The people in our company who handle this data are very aware of what they're handling, and in addition to their contract had to sign numerous papers saying they'll never break those laws, not even under a direct order from a superior. We have not one but two departments handling regulation and compliance.

That is why this is such a big scandal in Germany right now: Pulling this stunt off means that there is massive corruption at all levels within T-Com.

Summary incorrect

[Denial93]

The company's internal security didn't just track the phone calls between board members and journalists. Obviously, they "had to" check for journalists' number in board members' connection lists. But they also checked for board members' numbers in the connection lists of journalists who wrote particularly much about the company. So hundreds of thousands of connections between journalists and informants, friends etc. were monitored.

I don't think Germany even has laws that are adequate for crimes of this scale. After all, data is knowledge, knowledge is power, power is abusable. More data means more knowledge means more abuse. It is time for lawmakers to react.

Re:Summary incorrect

[Tom]

I don't think Germany even has laws that are adequate for crimes of this scale. After all, data is knowledge, knowledge is power, power is abusable. More data means more knowledge means more abuse. It is time for lawmakers to react. Knowing beats thinking. :-)

Germany has several laws against this, in fact. At least three were very obviously breached, and criminal proceeds are very likely to be initiated very soon.

Source: I work at a german telecommunications company (not T-Com). Due to my position I had to sign extensive paperwork about all the laws I have to know and follow when I started working there.

The bigger news story from now on

[iminplaya]

will be when you find out your line is not being tapped. At this point, it's best to assume the worst and work as though everything you do is being broadcast on the TV.

Re:Not clear if customer records are affected

[snowraver1]

Funny you mention that, when just the other day there was an article on /. that indicated that almost 50% of US companies routinely monitor outgoing email to make sure that there are no information leaks.

I think that if the company owns the phone, and the employee (by paying them) then all communications are fair game for monitoring.

Now if they were snooping on customers, that would be a WHOLE different story...

Re:double-edged

[Timosch]

Plus even under new laws, they only have to store the data, but may not access it without the permission of a judge, and only in cases of danger to life or the constitution (as to an injunction by the Federal Constitutional Court, the trial about the constitutionality of this law is still pending...)

Actually...

[Grashnak]

The question isn't whether or not this is wrong; the question is who on earth is stupid enough to use a phone company's own system to leak secret information about that phone company....

It's not just listening in that's the problem

[hyades1]

This isn't about eavesdropping, it's about getting information you have no right to possess. If my girlfriend steals my cell phone and finds out that I've been calling Wendy's House of Spanking Ecstasy on the same days as I subsequently say I was working late, she doesn't need the contents of the call to get seriously pissed off and do some major damage to my professional life.

This is exactly the same kind of thing. The telcom has no right to use its special situation to assume police-like powers and check up on people.

And my mention of Wendy's was just an example, OK? I don't know of any such place and I don't know if it even exists and I've never been there if it does. OK? Got it?