Verizon Betrays the Public

Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR2007101501857.html

16 Oct 2007 Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in 'emergency cases' without court orders hundreds of times since 2005. Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called... From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon provided data to federal authorities on an emergency basis 720 times, it said in the letter. The records included Internet protocol addresses as well as phone data. In that period, Verizon turned over information a total of 94,000 times to federal authorities armed with a subpoena or court order, the letter said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/washington/16nsa.html

Phone Utilities Won't Give Details on Eavesdropping
16 Oct 2007 The three biggest phone carriers have refused to tell members of Congress what role, if any, they had in the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program. The utilities said it would be illegal to divulge classified information. [Yeah, that's the like the kid who kills his parents and asks for mercy from the court because he's an orphan. --LRP]