NSA: We bought the data and used it for statistical analyses

[kurth]

Business In The Beltway
Did The NSA Break The Law?
Jessica Holzer, 05.11.06, 1:58 PM ET

Washington, D.C. - The allegations that the federal government has been secretly tracking the calls of millions of Americans, aided by three major telephone companies, will doubtless inflame privacy advocates and Democrats. But whether AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth broke the law by handing over reams of call data to the National Security Agency is unclear. USA Today reported Wednesday that the three telcos had handed over phone records for tens of millions of Americans to the NSA, which then used the records to search for patterns it thought would help it suss out terrorist activity. The paper said the NSA wasn't wiretapping the calls and listening to the content, but was compiling extensive lists of who called who, and when they called them.

From the White House on Wednesday, President George W. Bush didn't directly refer to the USA Today report, but defended the government's surveillance programs in general. "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates," he said. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

Section 222 of the 1934 Communications Act forbids phone companies from giving out data on the calling patterns of their customers. But telecom experts say the law wasn't designed to address national security issues. "There were large competition concerns over how the Bell companies might misuse that information," says Larry Strickling, the former chief of the common carrier bureau of the Federal Communications Commission.

The USA Today piece alleges that the government, as it had with a domestic wiretapping program, skirted the courts set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and didn’t get warrants. "I don't know why they didn't do that," said James Lewis, the director of technology and public policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. When grilled about their failure to get warrants, the NSA, which is known for its data-mining, is likely to characterize the collection of the call data as standard practice, said Lewis. "They'll argue that they bought the data from the companies and used it for statistical analyses."

http://www.forbes.com/home/businessinthebeltway/2006/05/11/nsa-wiretap-bush_cx_jh_0511NSA.html

[Kagemusha]

1. WAIT A DARN MINUTE

It does not matter, the telcos cannot legally SELL that data so it matters not one bit whether the NSA *BOUGHT* that data!!! If this is the "innocent explanation" then there's going to be a lot of lawsuits flying!

[Coexist]

3. I was shuffled to 3 different states and waited 40 minutes on hold

while trying to get a copy of Verizon's Privacy Policy today.

They ended up telling me I had to write to the FCC.

[Kagemusha]

5. Ask them if YOU can buy this data from them.

See what kind of an answer you get.

[Coexist]

6. I actually snipped "I'll bet you handed my call list over with less fuss"

:evilgrin:

[Infomaniac]

2. Bias Alert

"...will doubtless inflame privacy advocates and Democrats."

Why would only privacy advocates and Democrats be concerned with this issue? Is there no one within the republican party that's interested in safeguarding the sanctity of one's home and private personal conversations. Nice to know if that's the case.

[Kagemusha]

4. Answering your own question nicely.

Sad that Republicans are proud of sacrificing freedom for security.

Especially when, to be perfectly blunt, data mining produces so many false positives that it's like looking for a needle in a haystack and mistaking small straws for needles because they prick you.

[jayfish]

7. "But telecom experts say the law wasn't designed to address national...

security issues." Who cares? It's against the law regardless of what the hell it was designed for. If the law doesn't apply to the standards of the day, change it, don't break it.

Jay