AT&T is seeking the return of technical documents presented in a lawsuit that allegedly detail how the telecom giant helped the government set up a massive internet wiretap operation in its San Francisco facilities.
In papers filed late Monday, AT&T argued that confidential technical documents provided by an ex-AT&T technician to the Electronic Frontier Foundation shouldn’t be used as evidence in the case and should be returned.
The documents, which the EFF filed under a temporary seal last Wednesday, purportedly detail how AT&T diverts internet traffic to the National Security Agency via a secret room in San Francisco and allege that such rooms exist in other AT&T switching centers.
Category: Electronic Rights
IRS Examines Paypals Records to Uncover Tax Fraud
Interesting article this afternoon on Bloomberg: IRS Reviews PayPal Purchase Records to Find Offshore Accounts, by Ryan J. Donmoyer: The IRS is examining some electronic-payment transactions processed by EBay’s PayPal unit to find U.S. taxpayers who keep unreported income…
AT&T Forwards ALL Internet Traffic to the NSA
Via Dave Farber; Ryan Singel:
AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers’ phone calls, and shunted its customers’ internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center, according to a former AT&T worker cooperating in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s lawsuit against the company.
Mark Klein, a retired AT&T communications technician, submitted an affidavit in support of the EFF’s lawsuit this week. That class action lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco last January, alleges that AT&T violated federal and state laws by surreptitiously allowing the government to monitor phone and internet communications of AT&T customers without warrants.
Google’s WiFi Privacy Ploy
What this means is that Google and Earthlink plan to use online files (known as cookies) and other data-collection techniques to profile users and deliver precise, personalized advertising as they surf the Internet. (Earthlink is working with the interactive ad company DoubleClick, which collects and analyzes enormous amounts of information online to engage in individual interactive ad targeting.)
Not everyone is enthused by the Google/Earthlink model. San Francisco was advised by a trio of privacy advocates to develop policies that would respect personal privacy. In letters to the city, the ACLU of Northern California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) urged the adoption of a “gold standard” for data privacy (pasted in below from http://epic.org/privacy/internet/sfws22106.html), insuring that its Wi-Fi system would “accommodate the individual’s right to communicate anonymously and pseudonymously.” The groups also suggested that the city require any Wi-Fi company to allow users to “opt in” to any data-collection scheme. [Full disclosure: I rent office space in Washington, DC, from EPIC].
Yahoo’s China Problem
Companies can and do make choices. You can engage in China and choose not to do certain kinds of business. Yahoo! has placed user e-mail data within legal jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China. Google and Microsoft have both chosen not to do so. Why did Yahoo! chose to do this?
All of Your Memorial Union Photos Belong to Us
This morning I was chased out of the University of Wisconsin student union by a college student half my age telling me I couldn’t take photographs there. I know, I know…it wasn’t his fault, he was just doing his job. I asked him why I couldn’t take photographs there. He said everything in the Wisconsin Union was copyrighted and no one could take photographs inside the building without a “permit.”
I am begining to find that in Madison, Wisconsin, one of the most liberal cities in America, it is becoming increasingly difficult to take photographs on state owned and/or tax payer financed facilities (i.e. UW, Overture Center, Monona Terrace, etc.). Ironic, isn’t it? What’s worse, I was at a learning institution!
IRS Permits Tax Preparers to Sell Our Data
Would you ever agree to work overtime for free, indefinitely, creating profits for someone else?
I didn’t think so.
But that’s often what we do when we buy a product or service from companies. That’s because they can continue to make money off us by selling whatever personal information we give them in the course of the transaction. Your payback: more junk mail and greater risk of identity theft.
And now it looks very likely that tax preparers will be able to profit off clients in ways having nothing to do with taxes.
Thanks to proposed changes to the IRS’ privacy regulation of tax preparers, everyone from H&R Block to your local tax-prep shop may be allowed to sell their clients’ tax return information to any third party, including marketers and data brokers.
Mind you, they would need to get your consent, according to the proposed regulations.
Flying Without an ID
According to the TSA, in the 9th Circuit Case of John Gilmore, you are allowed to fly without showing ID — you’ll just have to submit yourself to secondary screening.
The Identity Project wants you to try it out. If you have time, try to fly without showing ID.
Investigated By Homeland Security for Paying Down a Credit Card
Retired Texas schoolteacher is “madder than a panther with kerosene on his tail” because the Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation on him. The reason? He had the gall to pay down his credit card, which apparently marks you as a potential terrorist in Bushworld.
Tauke but no Action on Network Neutrality
The principle seems to be, “If it helps the Bells, leave it in. If it hurts them, take it out.”