Coughing up their customers' records
Comments (11)
Friday, October 19, 2007 | 12:21 PM ET
By Henry Champ
On October 12th, Verizon Communications, the second largest telecom company in the U.S., sent a letter to investigators at the House committee on energy and commerce.
The contents of that letter surprised the investigators. It ought to scare the rest of us as well.
In the letter, Verizon admitted that it had provided the telephone records of its customers to federal authorities on hundreds of occasions since 2005 and did so without having received any court orders.
From January 2005 to September 2007, Verizon gave personal data to federal authorities, without legal cover, 720 times. That works out to at least once every working day.
Verizon defended its action by saying that it had been told by authorities these were emergencies and that it was not Verizon's role to second-guess these government requests.
The company also said it turned over information to authorities armed with court orders or subpoenas a total of 94,000 times during that same two-year period.
Verizon said police and intelligence agencies also asked not only for information about the person making the call, but on all the people that person called and the names of all the people these recipients called as well.
Pawns or partners
This revelation came as the energy and commerce committee continues its investigation into telephone companies' compliance with government surveillance programs.
The country's largest carrier, AT&T, also replied to the committee's requests. The telephone giant provided no detail of its surveillance activities but it agreed with Verizon that telephone companies were not equipped nor prepared to determine the legitimacy of federal requests for customer information because resisting might slow efforts to save lives.
Legal experts say that is nonsense since, if lives are at stake, there is a provision in the law that gives the feds the ability to get a legal tap as quickly as they want.
An alarm bell has also gone off in Denver. An executive of Qwest, another American telecom provider, has charged that his company was punished by the Bush administration after it questioned the legality of some requests being made of it by the National Security Agency. The NSA is the country's electronic spymaster.
According to the former executive, Joseph Nacchio (who was recently convicted and sentenced to jail for insider trading), some lucrative NSA contracts that Qwest expected to receive were withdrawn and given to another company.
In 2006, the newspaper USA Today reported that the NSA was collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans with the co-operation of the telephone companies. It reported that Qwest refused to go along with these efforts and expressed concern that the activity was illegal.
A modest breakthrough
The Verizon letter can be seen as a small breakthrough for congressional investigators. Efforts to get a handle on how and how often the U.S. government has been electronically spying on its citizens have been successfully beaten back by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11.
That is now changing. Democrats control Congress at the moment and they want new legislation that will control the government's domestic spying.
In this effort, they are getting co-operation from the telephone companies by promising such legislation will include immunity for those that assisted the government in the past.
That offer of immunity is troubling some key lawmakers. Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, says, for example, "I'm not going to buy a pig in a poke and commit to retroactive immunity when I don't know what went on."
Specter, however, is not going to get all the information he wants.
The Bush administration's ran a secret program of warrantless counterterrorism for years before it was made public in 2005. Verizon's disclosures cover the period only since 2005 when the company knew everyone was watching.
What happened before 2005 and in the more immediate aftermath of 9/11 in 2001 is anyone's guess.
Over these next few months, there will likely be more disclosures and the finalization of new safeguards as Congress tries to satisfy U.S. citizens that Big Brother is not listening.
One other quick point: On Wednesday, in the op-ed pages of the Washington Post, a column written by the presidents of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Christian Coalition of America — two unlikely colleagues — set out a mutual complaint.
Both were objecting to an initial Verizon decision to deny the pro-choice group a text-message service that would allow those who wished to receive news updates from NARAL (an acronym of National Abortion Rights Action League) after typing in a five-digit code.
This censorship was exposed in the New York Times and Verizon eventually backed down. But the two presidents, NARAL's Nancy Keenan and Christian Coalition's Roberta Combs wrote, "We are on the opposite sides of almost every issue. But when it comes to the fundamental right of citizens to participate in the political process, we're united and very, very worried."
Congress has a lot of work ahead of itself.
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Henry Champ is CBC Newsworld's correspondent in Washington, D.C., delivering Canadian viewers the latest developments in the U.S. political arena. Recently, he has been a leading Canadian voice on coverage of the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq and the growing concerns over the Canada-U.S. relationship.
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Comments (11)
L Hamilton
Toronto
I assume being a citizen in a developed democratic nation that I have a right to privacy. In reality because we leave behind a daily trail of electronic tags that more than anything else defines what we are and in some respects how we think, we cannot effectively have privacy. We blog fearlessly, supporting various political and ethical positions. However, we don’t expect our government to actively stalk us.
The huge increase in the security and intelligence industry since 9/11 has resulted in the development of a whole batch of technological search tools. Once the ability to track all electronic transmissions is developed, then a system is needed to isolate items of interest, then further filters to identify what is relevant. At the end of all this, someone has to determine whether there is an actionable threat, hence the 94,000 court orders mentioned in the story. The U.S. despite its best efforts has not thrown 94,000 terrorists in jail. So what do we make of this. It sounds like the security industry is making its fortune churning through terra bytes of data that in turn keeps government agents running in circles.
Posted October 22, 2007 07:42 AM
Don
Mississauga
Rest assured that Big Brother is watching and has been for years. In Britain there are more video cameras in public spaces than in any other country: in the US it's illegal wiretaps of American citizens: in Canada it's your guess is as good as mine. At least here privacy commisioners are vocal in their opposition to over the top security measures and police prying, so we at least a modicum of retraint, of course we don't know the half of what goes on everyday so we are left to our imaginations to suppose the worst.
Posted October 21, 2007 12:09 PM
Charlene Smith
Woodstock,Ontario
From what I have watched happening in the U.S. over the past few years, how is this any different than what has been happening in Germany, Russia, Cuba, etc.
It looks to be a communist state happening all under the guise of terrorism.
Different approaches but same result, loss of freedom.
Hopefully people in Canada will wake up to the fact that the U.S. policies are coming into Canada and are alive and well under the Steven Harper administration.
My fear is that Canadians will realize at some point but by then it will be too late and Canada will be no more...
Posted October 21, 2007 08:00 AM
Dona
Hudson,QC.Canada
Let us hope Mr.Harper will not follow Mr.Bush's example with this dangerous threat to the privacy of Canadians.
Further, we do not need a no-fly list I am sure there are other ways of securing the safety of flights without this invasion of passengers privacy.
Canada should not be caught up in a policy of fear as seems to be the case in the US.
Posted October 21, 2007 01:09 AM
Des Emery
"Privacy" is the cloak of invisibility worn well by terrorists. But its mis-use can also be the hammer used to kill a fly, doing more damage than good in the wrong hands. Assessing co-operatively early information which is easily collated in small incrementals would have prevented 9/11 and obviated all the ridiculous procedures in place now and building to a fascist conclusion where one can't leave his home without carrying all his papers with him. If this goes on, Henry....well, you know how that story ends.
Posted October 20, 2007 10:59 PM
Lyle
We are 23 years past "1984" and big brother is watching.
It is no surprise that this is happening in the US.
It makes you wonder if it is any different in Canada.
The real question " Who is watching the Big Brother"
Posted October 20, 2007 07:48 PM
Harold Hotham
First, I have less comment than question. If the Congressional Investigations prove this illegal activity was sanctioned at the highest levels, is there a legal recourse or is government protected under other legislation?
Secondly, for Canadians to think we are immune to this kind of electronic surveillance, we should think again as we do an internet search of ECHELON which is the NSA's electronic eavesdropping operation that operates in a number of countries including Canada
ed note,
at the moment your question can't be answered...it is what congress among others is wrestling with...it is headed to the courts to be sure, but first, how widespread and to what degree of harm have any of these practices caused.
Posted October 20, 2007 06:03 PM
Roger Strong
Winnipeg
Its stories like this that make me want to nominate G.W. Bush for the Order of Canada. Surely no-one else has done more for Canadian sovereignty in living memory.
Just a few years ago it wasn't unusual to hear talk of Canada soon being absorbed into the U.S., or adopting a common currency.
Bush has changed that. This story shows that illegal domestic spying became common. Add to that the occupation of Iraq, the sanctioned use of torture, the effective suspension of habeas corpus, the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina, record budget deficits that started even before 9/11, and more.
For the first time we need a passport to cross the border. Transiting the U.S. to another country has new requirements and dangers. From softwood lumber to durham wheat, the U.S. is refusing to honor trade agreements.
Merging with the U.S. is now unthinkable for many who once thought it inevitable. Canadian independence is safe.
Thanks, George!
Posted October 20, 2007 05:48 PM
Roger Strong
Winnipeg
Glen mentioned the proposed U.S. requirements for flight manifests for Canadian flights over U.S. territory. These would be required 72 hours in advance.
Naturally, Canada would make the same demands of U.S. aircraft flying over Canada.
Where it gets entertaining is when some U.S. senator flying from Washington to Alaska or New York to London is turned away at the gate, because he wasn't registered with Canada 72 hours in advance.
Posted October 20, 2007 05:01 PM
keith
telkwa
if Mr. Bush has instructed his government to perform these activities, you can be sure that Mr. Harper has instructed our government to do the same, after being instructed by Mr. Bush to do so.
Posted October 20, 2007 02:28 PM
Glen
Toronto
Is this really a surprise to anyone? How many times does something like this have to happen before people realize that their privacy as an American citizen is being severely diminished. All under the guise of security and the Patriot Act.
No one seems to care about privacy anymore. They think it is a lost cause and the government will do whatever they want, whenever they want, without repercussion.
We are also starting to see this infiltrate into Canada with recent requests for flight manifests for planes not even landing on US soil. Now doubt, we'll bend and give it to them. Not to mention credit card data that goes cross border with little if any protection from prying American officials.
Posted October 20, 2007 12:53 PM