Tag Archives: telephone

ECHELON

As you may have heard, the NSA hopes to create a massive database of every single phone call made in the USA. They approached the big phone companies, and they all handed over data about your phone calls except Qwest. No warrants, no questions, they just gave the information away.

[Update 2 days later: If you think it's no big deal, consider that the government is already illegally tapping journalists' phone lines in an attempt to root out leakers and whistleblowers.]

If that bothers you, you could rant about it online. Or, you could consider doing something more productive: if you haven’t already done so, you could switch your long distance to Working Assets, and tell your old long distance provider why. Working Assets are the only phone company to have joined the ACLU in filing a lawsuit to challenge the spying.

(Also, if you do switch, feel free to give them my number as a referral code.)

John McCain

Something to remember next time you’re tempted to view John McCain as the acceptable face of the Republican Party:

A last-minute amendment added by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., would require the Department of Homeland Security to create an “integrated screening system” inside the United States.

McCain envisions erecting physical checkpoints, dubbed “screening points,” near subways, airports, bus stations, train stations, federal buildings, telephone companies, Internet hubs and any other “critical infrastructure” facility deemed vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Secretary Tom Ridge would appear to be authorized to issue new federal IDs–with biometric identifiers–that Americans could be required to show at checkpoints.

—ZDnet