# What's Worse Than An Illegal NSA Wiretap? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696 "2006-06-22T11:03:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/1 "2006-06-22T11:03:08Z")
[Having your ISP give **all** your data to whomever _they_ want!](http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32572) > [@](#): > > **AT&T to customers: All your data are belong to us** > US TELCO AT&T has rewritten its privacy policy to allow it to hand over customer records to whoever it wants. > > The re-write has come about after the telco got into trouble for handing over phone records of ordinary Americans to the US government. > > According to the new policy AT&T, not customers, own customers’ confidential info and the Telco can use it “to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.” > > The new policy allows AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service and give that to whoever it likes as well. > > Legal experts say that AT&T seems to have re-written its so widely to avoid consumer-protection lawsuits. The outfit is being sued by San Francisco’s Electronic Frontier Foundation for allegedly allowing the NSA to tap into the company’s data network, providing warrantless access to customers’ e-mails and Web browsing. Wonder how many customers AT&T’s gonna lose over this one? If all the other companies start doing this, I’ll be swearing off the net forever. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/2 "2006-06-22T11:37:16Z")
I assumed the answer was going to be “lots of illegal NSA wiretaps”. Still, your one is funnier (in that Titus Andronicus “I have no more tears to shed, so I must laugh” kinda way.) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/3 "2006-06-22T12:53:26Z")
The telephone companies (and before them the telegraph companies) have always cooperated with the government. Makes sense since they can only operate by government permission. How long is ‘always?’ Since the first American Black Chamber in the World War I era. Few of us can be upset that our companies help the government spy on the cables of foreign governments. Then the next step is spying on international communications. That is more debatable. So down the slippery slope we go until we get to the point that AT&T people and NSA people are in the same room reading my latest erotic fiction. Those of us who follow these things have always known the US Government lied to us. The only thing that protects us is the huge volume of stuff the government collects every day. In a way it is like the business with Oliver North years ago. ‘Delete’ does not mean delete. Somebody can read everything you type on the internet. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/4 "2006-06-22T16:09:01Z")
Damn, am I glad I don’t use AT&T for anything. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/5 "2006-06-22T16:21:18Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > The telephone companies (and before them the telegraph companies) have always cooperated with the government. Makes sense since they can only operate by government permission. Yeah, but this is even “better!” They’re going to hand it over not only to government types, but _ **anyone else** _ they want to! Just wait for the directed marketing that’ll be coming at you because AT&T handed your data over to private companies! ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/6 "2006-06-22T16:30:25Z")
Encryption is your friend. Too bad I can’t get anyone else to use it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/7 "2006-06-22T16:36:27Z")
My first reaction to the question was “a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.” ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/8 "2006-06-23T17:07:08Z")
It’s simultaneously better and worse that it appears. At present, the new AT&T information non-privacy policy applies to their customers. My home DSL line is provisioned by AT&T, but my ISP is not AT&T. As a result, I am not an AT&T customer. I just got a friendly email from my ISP stating that they’re sticking to their policy of requiring a subpoena to release any informatio on me to anyone. So, score one for the “little local guys!” What’s frightening is that AT&T is purposely recording their customers’ user IDs, passwords, click history and purchases, especially anywhere in the Yahoo world. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/9 "2006-06-23T21:27:13Z")
It seems telling that AT&T’s old policy included the statement that AT&T knows “that privacy is an important issue for our customers and members”, but this new one doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/10 "2006-06-23T23:18:58Z")
Let’s say that handing over records to the government might help catch terrorists. Now we can be pretty sure that no terrorist is going to use AT&T, right? My point is, it seems that this could only possibly be effective if all companies adopt this new policy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/11 "2006-06-23T23:24:00Z")
[You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=352758) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/12 "2006-06-25T05:59:36Z")
It’s ironic that this administration is undoubtedly the most obsessed America has ever had with keeping its own actions hidden. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/13 "2006-06-25T17:56:08Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > AT&T people and NSA people are in the same room reading my latest erotic fiction. That I don’t mind. It’s when they start commenting and marking it up that I feel my privacy has been violated. Hello NSA, if it was finished, it wouldn’t be called “draft4.” ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/14 "2006-06-26T03:05:10Z")
On the plus side, the CIA can now balance my checkbook. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/15 "2006-06-26T15:49:10Z")
Yep. Our government has been monitoring SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) - a worldwide bank messaging system. (It’s worth noting that SWIFT is just a worldwide financial messenger - it’s not a bank.) Normally, this is one of the most highly-secured computer networks on the planet, but the US Treasury (sensibly enough, perhaps) has a connection to it, and has been doing data mining for the past five years. Naturally, there is now international grumpiness and treason charges being aimed at the news reporters that revealed this. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/16 "2006-06-26T19:46:50Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Naturally, there is now international grumpiness and treason charges being aimed at the news reporters that revealed this. Because, as everyone knows, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are ideals embraced only by crazed communist fascist nations. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-worse-than-an-illegal-nsa-wiretap/361696/17 "2006-06-26T21:22:43Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > It’s ironic that this administration is undoubtedly the most obsessed America has ever had with keeping its own actions hidden. It’s not ironic; it’s perfectly predictable.