It's Not Just News Corp: Why Telecommunications Companies in the US May Be Spying on You Every Day

[midnight]

"When Guardian reporter, Nick Davies, broke the story that Rupert Murdoch's News of the World had been hacking British citizens' voicemail messages, including those of a murdered teenager, there was a public outcry. Unfortunately, this is the tip of a glacial iceberg that has the potential to bring down a lot more than the News of the World.

Last year, without due public debate and input, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Justice Department approved a merger between Comcast and NBC Universal that gave the Internet cable giant control over the programming of NBC news. At the same time, pursuant to the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, Comcast as well as all other telecommunication companies are required to cooperate with the Federal government in providing the facility for government to search through all electronic communications sent down their pipes.

So presently, the government, with the help of Comcast and other telecommunication companies, can hack everyone's phone and email conversations. Here also lies a new 21st century media model: a telecom company that owns and operates the infrastructure for the digital transmission of news and information; simultaneously owns the newsroom; and uses it infrastructure to assist the government in mass, warrantless surveillance of all American citizens."

"Further, given the symbiotic relationship between media and government, there is nothing to stop Comcast from examining the email messages and phone conversations of rival news organizations, political opponents, and other persons and organizations of interest in an effort to "adjust" its news coverage and massage its bottom line. In fact, Comcast has maintained that it has a broad right to monitor its customers' email messages and Internet activities. It has an established history of having spied on its customers as well as preventing them from sharing files. Further, it is presently lobbying Congress to do away with net neutrality, the principle that assures that everyone, not just giant media companies, has an equal voice on the Internet. And, in 2008, Chris Albrecht, presently CEO of Starz TV, reported that Comcast's senior VP told him that Comcast was experimenting with installing cameras into its cable boxes thereby allowing it to see into people's living rooms and identify viewers."http://www.alternet.org/media/152104/it%27s_not_just_news_corp%3A_why_telecommunications_companies_in_the_us_may_be_spying_on_you_every_day


So who is watching these watchers?

[RKP5637]

1. We're like Russia during the cold war. We are

propagandized, lied to and the surveillance runs deep and wide. And disinformation is everywhere.

[ixion]

2. It's not 'maybe'. They are. Period.

The 'special' rooms were installed just after the unPATRIOTic Act was passed. And TIA is still very much alive. It was just renamed. It's another one of those Bush-Era policies that Obama continues.

[midnight]

3. True... Do we know who the watchers are in those secret rooms?

[leveymg]

7. Requirement for telcos to install spying equipment goes back to '94 CALEA Act

This was expanded to all ISPs by law in 2002, and since '08 warrantless "draftnet" interception of all forms of electronic communication have been legalized by the '08 FISA Amendment, which then Senator Obama voted in favor of.

"The Program" is essentially the warrantless universal collection of all telecommunications and other data sources by the NSA and its analysis by other federal agencies without personalized reasonable suspicion of any crime. Essentially, everyone's been profiled, and there is no longer a 4th Amendment right to privacy in communications, except for -- surprise -- in the US mail, which still requires a reasonable suspicion to open to examine the contents, particularly of messages.

[midnight]

4. Rubert Murdoch might be prosecuted for spying in the UK, but in America, he is probably safe.

"telling the public secrets of what goes on in the privacy of people's homes, on their private phone lines and in their personal medial records, wouldn't you question how your staff was constantly coming up with this invasive information. Well, no you wouldn't question it if you'd paid and told them to get the information illegally, as the Murdoch's have done.

So, unless you are like Joseph in the Bible, having dreams telling you the future and what is going on behind closed doors, it's safe to assume you are illegally hacking and wiretapping people for information to financially profit from." http://aishamusic.blogspot.com/2011/08/judge-orders-one-of-rupert-murdochs.html

In the U.S., I don't think Murdoch's spying will be prosecuted. I think it will be rewarded. In fact I'm sure his hacking and spying skills are what landed him a no bid contract with the dept. of education..

[queerart]

5. Here Is an Article From Wired On The Subject.......

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/att-doj-foia/

[sad sally]

6. Stiffle dissent; keep tract of the trouble makers.

There have literally been so many efforts over the past several years to heighten surveillance powers and other means of control over the Internet that it's very difficult to chronicle them all. In August of last year, the UAE and Saudi Arabian governments triggered much outrage when they barred the use of Blackberries on the ground that they could not effectively monitor their communications (needless to say, the U.S. condemned the Saudi and UAE schemes). But a month later, the Obama administration unveilled a plan to "require all services that enable communications -- including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct 'peer to peer' messaging like Skype" to enable "back door" government access.

This year, the Obama administration began demanding greater power to obtain Internet records without a court order. Meanwhile, the Chairwoman of the DNC, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, is sponsoring a truly pernicious bill that would force Internet providers "to keep logs of their customers’ activities for one year." And a whole slew of sleazy, revolving-door functionaries from the public/private consortium that is the National Security State -- epitomized by former Bush DNI and current Booz Allen executive Adm. Michael McConnell -- are expoiting fear-mongering hysteria over cyber-attacks to justify incredibly dangerous (and profitable) Internet controls. As The Washington Post's Dana Priest and William Arkin reported in their "Top Secret America" series last year: "Every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7 billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications." That is a sprawling, out-of-control Surveillance State.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/08/19/surveillance/index.html?du