[privacy] Money Power vs. The NSA ? Not So Fast...

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via PhysOrg.com (UPI).

[snip]

Outraged that some telecom companies are selling out their customers to the government? Then vote with your wallet, or 
so argues one activist group. But the seemingly good idea may be rather difficult to follow through.

BuyBlue.org, a California-based Democratic advocacy group that encourages people to buy from businesses that support 
workers' rights, environmental standards and corporate transparency, pointed out to its proponents that keeping 
accounts with AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon would be ill-advised if subscribers are concerned about maintaining their 
privacy from the government.

While AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon have all denied reports that they have abided by the National Security Agency's 
request to provide calling data of millions of subscribers, many still believe that all three have gone out of their 
way to work together with the government, rather than protect their clients' interests.

In fact, of the four major U.S. carriers, only Qwest reportedly flatly refused to comply with the NSA's request and 
refused to hand over the information. Still, changing telephone carriers is not as easy as switching from Coca-Cola to 
Pepsi, as phone users simply may not have much choice when it comes to avoiding carriers that have allegedly cooperated 
with the NSA.

For instance, Qwest only serves those in a 14-state region from Arizona north to Wyoming and east to Minnesota. So 
those on the east and west coasts cannot subscribe to the carrier even if they wanted to.

[snip]

More here:
http://www.physorg.com/news67266835.html

- ferg

p.s. Bonus link:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20060519/1022207.shtml

:-)

--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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