Driving Blind: Militarized Education and the NSA

Ethan Gach

I write about comics, video games and American politics. I fear death above all things. Just below that is waking up in the morning to go to work. You can follow me on Twitter at @ethangach or at my blog, gamingvulture.tumblr.com. And though my opinions aren’t for hire, my virtue is.

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8 Responses

  1. Rod Engelsman says:

    Here’s something that I wonder about the NSA meta-data program: Why are the telecoms even keeping this information in the first place? I just bought a new phone from Verizon today and had to update to a new plan (my old plan was a legacy from Alltel that was grandfathered in when Verizon bought them out). The new plan is Unlimited calling with free long distance and unlimited texting. The only thing I really pay for ala carte is data access in 2GB increments.

    So if they aren’t going to bill me for calls and texting then why do they even need to keep that data? I totally understand if they aggregated it to monitor network usage and see where they needed to build out and so forth, but I’m never going to be billed on the basis of who and where and when I call and text. It looks to me like the primary reason Verizon has for keeping records of who and when I call is simply to turn that information over to the NSA. It has no legitimate business purpose anymore.Report

  2. Damon says:

    Keep everything. You never know when you might need it, can use it for marketing, can sell it.

    Companies aren’t going to fight back the feds. They have no interest to do so and every incentive not to. What do you think will happen if Verizon’s CEO said they were no longer cooperating? All the legal weight of the gov’t would fall into place. AG investigations, FBI investigations, IRS, Congressional hearings investigating ANY law violation. Verizon would fold in a month. If not, they’d be bankrupt in months.Report

    • Kim in reply to Damon says:

      Verizon is too big to fail.
      Government takeover is always a possibility.
      Verizon, if no other telecom, could tell the gov’t to piss in a hole.
      They’d get away with it, for a few days/weeks/months.Report