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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.'"
They get to coninue doing business in the U.S.
for all intents and purposes they're joined at the hip.
that is, their bullshit is the same and they stand on the same legs but they got different heads so the information doesn't end up being used for it's stated purpose, just for myriad of other things. ..oh and I guess this just underlines how stupid it is to not have decent privacy laws in place. they can sell all your information - to anyone who asks and pays.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Well, no they won't because that's not how it works
That's not how it works today while Google is rolling in the dough. When they hit hard times, that could easily change, but all the data they've collected over the last decade will still be right there, tempting management to sell it for a quick buck.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Does the CIA still raise that money by selling drugs into the US like it was caught doing previously, or do they just sell weapons on the black market to "Axis of evil" type countries. Such a credible and upstanding extra-govermentmtal organization, a shining beacon for protecting democracy... *sigh*.
America's IT companies are today's modern-day equivalent to the pre-WW2 German Industrialists. More than happy to clamp diigital handcuffs on their own customers for a few $$$, shove them into electronic cattle cars and ship them off to Information Death Camps.
You pay someone to provide you data voluntarily -> you buy data
Now that we know AT&T is on the take; Now that we know CIA is using our tax monies to bribe a PRIVATE COMPANIES so to SPY ON US, are they going to cook up even more harebrained excuses and then try to pin them to Edward Snowden ?
Can't wait to see the astroturfers crawling out from their hideouts with their brainless accusations ...
Calling Mr. Cold Fjord ...
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Ah, but the trick is that, as interpreted, this is actually AT&T's own data collected as part of their business.
The logic goes that since AT&T owns the wires, and needs this information to do billing and monitor their networks, then that data actually belongs to AT&T. And since that data belongs to AT&T (so goes the theory) you don't get a vote in AT&T giving over 'their' data even if 'their' data happens to be about you.
Sure you did, you voluntarily used their system, and in the process implicitly provided them with it.
All there in the Terms of Service, and neatly upheld by the courts.
Welcome to the Brave New World, where if you want privacy you are free to not use the phone system, the internet, the banking system, go outside your house, or interact with people lest details of what you do becomes 'property' of a corporation who is free to voluntarily assist intelligence agencies.
Grand, aint it?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.