Report: Verizon providing all call records to U.S. under court order

Oh, Come ON!!! I hate this #. What a #ing nightmare.

I found this interesting story on how proficient is the government agencies or more often than not the private companies that will be dealing with this phone data gathering.

After analyzing 1.5 million cellphone users over the course of 15 months, the researchers found they could uniquely identify 95 percent of cellphone users based on just four data points—that is, just four instances of where they were and what hour of the day it was just four times in one year. With just two data points, they could identify more than half of the users.

The days are in line with the surviving Boston Bomber, but why is the govenrment still gathering the data.

The goal of the government is to be able to have a record of every phone number in the nation been in use, I doubt this is about terrorism no matter how much the coat the intrusion of privacy with it.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group dedicated to the protection of fundamental rights online, has long suspected this kind of broad surveillance. Last summer, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), hinted that the government has broader surveillance powers than people suspect. The agencies doing the surveillance all fall under the executive branch, but congress has the power of oversight. Last December, Congress voted to extend the act granting this broad surveillance power until at least 2017.

Now it this is not over stepping the powers of the government I wonder what should be called specially when this administration is been after almost every record of calls when it comes to the media also.

This problem resurfaced last month, when the Associated Press reported that the Department of Justice subpoenaed the call records for many of their writers as part of an ongoing leak investigation

I guess the Obama administration love to keep track on everybody to know how much they are calling, where and for how long

When it comes to the media it wants to know the administration wants to persecute whistle blowers for political reasons

www.popsci.com...

The reason you only heard this about Verizon is that the other carriers gave the data up right up front. Truthfully, this sort of data you used to be able to get just for asking if you worked for the right people, it's not considered private, thus the court order.

Originally posted by Rocker2013

Originally posted by jibajaba
another privacy grab - hey - Verizon - stop or loose customers.

And how does a company just stop when they have been ordered by the federal government to supply it?

Verizon don't really have a choice in this, which is why it is a legal demand. The real problem here is that the government is demanding this information, not that Verizon is supplying it.

And if Verizon has this legal instruction, how many other companies have also had this instruction? How do you or I know that Google hasn't been forced to comply with the same request for data, or Facebook, or Yahoo, or Microsoft...?

All of those companies pretty much state that they will "only share information" with government and police when required by law. That gives the *impression* that it's only delivered in individual cases when a warrant is presented, but a general instruction like this with mass harvesting of user data also meets that requirement.

I find it very unlikely that Verizon would have an instruction to provide this information to the government, while Facebook, Microsoft and Google are just ignored. These are the three biggest players in internet communications, and we're supposed to just assume that the NSA and FBI overlooked them in favour of just collecting phone call metadata?

And how do they " have to" do this?

Any probable cause listed by individuals names attached to this data?

If not, then isnt it an illegal order? and as such arent illegal orders LEGALLY allowed to be ignored?

I wonder if this gives me a way out of my contract due to breech of privacy b/c of the above reasons, and just pay for the lines for $50/mo instead of double that now.

eta: Btw i noticed the news said "Foreign intelligence" does this mean it was wanted by a country outside of the states? And if so, how much more does that make it illegal?

Has anyone dug any deeper/know anything more specific about that lil tidbit?

Originally posted by marg6043
The goal of the government is to be able to have a record of every phone number in the nation been in use, I doubt this is about terrorism no matter how much the coat the intrusion of privacy with it.

It's not about terrorism, not at all. If it were, then they would need a starting point and a finishing point, and that would be all, they would absolutely not need the phone records of millions of Americans. If you're looking for a needle in a haystack, the last thing you would do is add more hay!

I don't know what the reason is for it, but I believe that it's about the government being in fear of the people. You know, it's almost like Artificial Intelligence deciding to destroy Humans because we're the biggest threat to the planet. The government created this anti-terrorism machine, and now it's become so aware it sees the biggest threat to its own existence (government) as being the democracy it was built to defend.

It's almost as if the machine created to defend freedom and liberty of Americans has decided that you're all threats to each other, so you all have to be watched - and it's for your own good!

I'm trying to get to the right analogy, but I don't think I'm there yet. I might pop back later if I think of it. I'm sure some of you get what I mean though

Well, we knew this was happening, didn't we..we just didn't have hard proof. Now we do. If anyone really believes they're not recording the content of the calls as well, perhaps I can interest you in a bridge I have for sale.

It's in Brooklyn. You'll love it.

I just recently started a contract with Verizon, and I have to say that reading this today just floored me. Seriously,? WTF has happened to America and the rights of Americans. Just the fact that they are doing this is shocking to me. One line that I saw in the article that caught my attention was this one ..

The order, a copy of which apparently was obtained by The Guardian, reportedly was granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25 and is good until July 19.

That whole title just reminded me of the Red Scare and the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 50's.

I can't believe that we as Americans that hold our freedom so dearly are letting it get stripped away so easily. Come on people we voted for these morons in office and we have the right to tell them what we do and don't want. We the people hold the power not the overpaid politicians in DC. Americans are literally letting the government get more and more control of our lives, and there is no other way to put it. We are letting them as we are not speaking up and saying anything against it.

I hope everyone takes note of the way things have gone since the beginning of the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration and think about that before you vote in 2016, as it may be our last chance before we have no rights anymore.

I would consider rebuking my contract wtih Verizon over this, but honestly if they have one with Verizon I find it highly doubtful that they don't have one with every other major cell phone company out there. I don't see any logic in just restricting it to Verizon, but I could be wrong.

This is not the first questionable action I have seen out of the Obama Administration especially since the re-election. I mean they were literally eyeballing a reporter with a treason charge using the same tactics the Nixon Administration used to cover up Watergate. Personally I haven't trusted Obama since day one and am till baffled as to how anyone trusted the man in the first place.

reply to post by schadenfreude


They have to do this because in 1979 it was a law passed that phone calls records were not part of the privacy act reserved to private citizens but that phone records were owned by the telephone companies, so when the government ask for this records is about how much you want to pay for fines if you do not provide the information asked specially since the Patriot act was enacted.

Originally posted by JacKatMtn

Senate leaders say NSA data gathering is routine

"To my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information, and it is simply what we call 'meta data.'"...

It would be a little hard to know what to complain about when their methods are Top Secret.

I used to think these idiots in Washington were just feigning stupidity, now I'm not so sure.

Originally posted by AntiNWO

Originally posted by JacKatMtn

Senate leaders say NSA data gathering is routine

"To my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information, and it is simply what we call 'meta data.'"...

It would be a little hard to know what to complain about when their methods are Top Secret.

I used to think these idiots in Washington were just feigning stupidity, now I'm not so sure.

They have never feigned anything, they are just using the same motto of Joseph Goebel's

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

"

reply to post by AntiNWO


When you read this type of statements coming from the morons that we elect in public offices it kind of makes you blood boil, this moron hits home for me as I am a Ga citizen.

But then again this political morons are soo detach from the main stream common citizens that they believe the crap they spew from their mouths either that or they truly believe we are as morons as they are.

I guess that is why already some before me has voice that a law sue should be next.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
.

..........Perhaps it's better than seeing them be more selective and actually amass a useful database instead of the Encyclopedia Everythingica.

edit on 5-6-2013 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

Maybe not...I am sure they could just search a name and target anyone they wanted with pretty much ease. They just needed the data and they apparently got that. ....not that donating to some cause or having a certain mindset would set anyone up for being targeted or anything. That's just being paranoid

Look on the bright side. They are not requesting the "taped conversations" of all the calls, YET. Only the call records of which number called which other number.

Those "taped conversations" are easier to collect today, though, since more and more voice is going through "digital channels" en route. And you know the computer can tape every digital message being transmitted though, compress this message, and store it on backup disc.

They are not yet giving the government the "content" of the call.

At least, that's why they say on TV news.

To get the "content" of the call, according to CNN news, they need to supply a warrant.

reply to post by JacKatMtn


This sounds to me as if they're only recording WHOM you call/text. Not WHAT you call or text about. But if they can get those records from Verizon, I'm sure Verizon wouldn't hesitate to hand over recorded calls and messages either.

I also understand why it's been kept a secret. Those pansy bastards at Verizon know very well that people would ditch them if they knew what they were doing.

Originally posted by Auricom
reply to post by JacKatMtn

 

This sounds to me as if they're only recording WHOM you call/text. Not WHAT you call or text about.

You think so? Then what do you suppose they mean by "overcollection?"

I'll tell you what I think it means, that's all they were authorized to collect, but that's not all they collected.

So now the truth is coming out, is not like the Bush when assured the population that it was not for the data mining of Innocent Americans but just known terrorist of suspect terrorist

Now is news that is much more than that, collecting records that have to do with what you eat, what you like, your religious affiliation, your political views, you mental health and more

But rest assure that no records of members of congress or the elites in the country are within the data mining base.

So is us the regular American citizens the ones been targeted here.

Then again, President Obama speech in 2007 when he promised a clean and transparent government where no more patriot act and spying on citizens were going to be allow under his administration

What a joke

Thanks for posting, yes this is a horrendous abuse of power. The surveillance society is advancing big time. A friend just informed me that yet another EO has been signed giving the government the right to seize any property, land, anything if the government "needs" it. It's way over the limit of overstepping Constitutional bounds. And also the Core Curriculum in education involves heavy data tracking on our children including their grades, family income, their behavior in classes, everything.

It's time to ditch the phone. It's possible to communicate with packet radio, use your own encryption software, and avoid all possibility of wire tapping. The first business to set it self up marketing the hand held packet radios will see it's stock zoom on the IPO.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
There is a point where having *SO* much information equates to having nothing much at all for the sheer mess and chaotic jumble it all makes for them. Oh I pity the poor NSA gomers who get assigned to this duty. I don't know who you'd have to piss off or be on the bad side of, but it would surely be punishment details all the way for trying to make any sense from that literal OCEAN of 99% junk.

Have you ever heard of these things called computer programs?


You set one up to filter out messages with specific keywords, and it makes it extremely simple to find what they're looking for. It would even work for voice. Current KNOWN voice recognition technology is very advanced.
It would take 5 minutes max to set up such a program....

BBC America just had this story on 5:30 news. They really is no protest and after 9/11 85 % of people are siding with the NSA over individual rights.

Do we have a forum where IT guys could post suggestions/tips on how to avoid or at least reduce the amount info we just hand over? I would really like to know.