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

[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.