NSA knows who you've called.

An interesting article in USA Today:

   NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
   Updated 5/11/2006 10:38 AM ET
   By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

   The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting
the phone
   call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data
provided
   by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct
knowledge of the
   arrangement told USA TODAY.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-n
sa_x.htm

And a personal note to you all:

Let me again remind people that if you do not inform your
elected
representatives of your displeasure with this sort of thing,
eventually you will not be in a position to inform them of
your
displeasure with this sort of thing.

Perry

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"Perry E. Metzger" writes:
-+------------------------
 | 
 | And a personal note to you all:
 | 
 | Let me again remind people that if you do not inform your
elected
 | representatives of your displeasure with this sort of
thing,
 | eventually you will not be in a position to inform them
of your
 | displeasure with this sort of thing.
 | 

Perry,

While I agree with you, the public does not,
so far as I can tell, find itself willing to
risk insecurity for the benefit of preserving
privacy, as this article in today's Boston
Globe would tend to confirm.

http://www.boston.com/n
ews/nation/articles/2006/05/12/most_put_security_ahead_of_pr
ivacy/

   Most put security ahead of privacy
   (By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff)
   Mark Jellison, a Verizon customer in Quincy, isn't fazed
that his
   phone company may have turned over his calling records
and those of
   millions of others to the National Security Agency as
part of an
   effort to thwart terrorism.

   <snip>


--dan


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Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-n
sa_x.htm
> 
Legal analysis from Center for Democracy and Technology at:

ht
tp://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2006/8

-- 
William Allen Simpson
     Key fingerprint =  17 40 5E 67 15 6F 31 26  DD 0D B9 9B
6A 15 2C 32

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See also Title 18 section 2703(c)(2):

"(2) A provider of electronic communication service or
remote computing 
service shall disclose to a governmental entity the - (A)
name; (B) 
address; (C) local and long distance telephone connection
records, or 
records of session times and durations; (D) length of
service (including 
start date) and types of service utilized; (E) telephone or
instrument 
number or other subscriber number or identity, including any
temporarily 
assigned network address; and (F) means and source of
payment for such 
service (including any credit card or bank account number),
of a 
subscriber to or customer of such service when the
governmental entity 
uses an administrative subpoena authorized by a Federal or
State statute 
or a Federal or State grand jury or trial subpoena or any
means 
available under paragraph (1). "

(at 
http://caselaw.
lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/18/parts/i/chapters/121/sect
ions/section_2703.html 
)

This paragraph specifically gives the requirements for
disclosure of 
local and long distance telephone connection records, which
were plainly 
not met.

-Dan

William Allen Simpson wrote:

> Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
>> http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-n
sa_x.htm
>>
> Legal analysis from Center for Democracy and Technology
at:
>
> ht
tp://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/2006/8
>


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On Fri, 12 May 2006, dangeer.org wrote:

>
> "Perry E. Metzger" writes:
> -+------------------------
> |
> | And a personal note to you all:
> |
> | Let me again remind people that if you do not inform
your elected
> | representatives of your displeasure with this sort of
thing,
> | eventually you will not be in a position to inform
them of your
> | displeasure with this sort of thing.
> |
>
> Perry,
>
> While I agree with you, the public does not,
> so far as I can tell, find itself willing to
> risk insecurity for the benefit of preserving
> privacy, as this article in today's Boston
> Globe would tend to confirm.
>
> http://www.boston.com/n
ews/nation/articles/2006/05/12/most_put_security_ahead_of_pr
ivacy/
>
>   Most put security ahead of privacy
>   (By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff)
>   Mark Jellison, a Verizon customer in Quincy, isn't
fazed that his
>   phone company may have turned over his calling
records and those of
>   millions of others to the National Security Agency as
part of an
>   effort to thwart terrorism.
>
>   <snip>

Probably because most Americans believe they are being spied
on anyways. 
(And have for a very long time.)

I find it interesting that the question is always about
"fighting 
terrorism".  I am willing to bet you would get
different answers if the 
question was phrased as "Should a president be allowed
to carry out 
massive wiretaps to spy on his political enemies?"

I have seen NO proof that this spying was limited, or even
directed 
towards, "terrorists".  (Unless Democrats, peace
activists, eco-freaks, 
hackers, and the like are now considered
"Terrorists".) Since there is no 
oversight allowed, we must assume that this effort has more
to do with 
rooting out and destroying threats to the President than it
does to actual 
threats to the security of the country.

-- 
"Waiter! This lambchop tastes like an old sock!"
- Sheri Lewis

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alan writes:
-+----------
 | 
 | Probably because most Americans believe they are being
spied on
 | anyways.  (And have for a very long time.)
 | 


Au contraire', it is precisely what, for example,
my spouse would say: "I live a decent life and have
nothing to hide."

As this and all security-related lists are composed
of people who are off-center when it comes to risk,
it is us what be the outliers in the distribution
and in no way are our various paranoias widely shared.

Not trying to debate the hive mind, etc.,

--dan


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At 08:05 AM 5/11/2006, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>Let me again remind people that if you do not inform
your elected
>representatives of your displeasure with this sort of
thing,
>eventually you will not be in a position to inform them
of your
>displeasure with this sort of thing.

I think begging elected representatives to acknowledge your
rights is 
generally a waste of time, especially when there is powerful
or ingrained 
opposition.  The Civil Rights movement got nowhere until
there was massive 
civil disobedience.  Widespread deployment of generic and
otherwise 
acceptable technologies that can be re-targeted for end-user
controlled 
privacy (not what governments would like to see, which is
privacy mediated 
by corporations, licensed professionals or other regulated
entities they 
can easily pressure) and/or insistence of powerful and
wealthy individuals 
that they have the privacy they deserve and get it in such a
way as its 
easily unavailable to the average citizen.

Steve 


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