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CIA Pays AT&T Millions To Voluntarily Provide Call Data
First time accepted submitter binarstu writes "The New York Times reports that 'The C.I.A. is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company's vast database of phone records, which includes Americans' international calls, according to government officials. The cooperation is conducted under a voluntary contract, not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the company to participate, according to the officials.'"
Agreed. It's sad that our movements, our preferences and our communications are subject to the whims of some corporate fat cat who wants to find new ways of maximizing shareholder value. They'll do anything with the data you entrust to them and all it takes is a policy shift because the terms of service you agreed to gives them the right to do this, even without a judge ordering them to turn the data over. Right now there's only a few voices out there who are yelling loudly about this in Congress and we need to get a piece of comprehensive legislation in place that genuinely protects our privacy. Unfortunately I don't see the current administration doing anything about it because they're too busy sniffing our in-boxes. Besides I'm still waiting for Guantanamo Bay to close.
Since the TFA is talking about overseas operations, it's interesting to look at their policies/TOS in the US since this call data can get you wrapped up in some government investigation because you have a friends in "those foreign places, not in 'Merica."
AT&T has multiple privacy policies but this one is of particular interest.
It says safe, not confidential but the second line seems to be in conflict however again, this is "overseas" stuff right? So they'll sell it to the feds because they also state...
Assist in the prevention and investigation of illegal activities and violations of our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policies.
So they've given themselves a moral way out because if you're doing naughty things or harming their network, they'll do whatever they want to keep their good name intact.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
This is what weak privacy law gets you. Not enough in the laws to make this clearly illegal.