Posted on 09/06/2016 3:58:24 AM PDT by fruser1
In a great example of government-business cooperation, Ancestry.com, the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, will be bringing the past alive by allowing lucky subscribers to hear the voices of their ancestors on early recorded phone conversations.
"Lucky" because there were only about 12 million telephones in the U.S around 1917 for a population of over 100 million, so not everybody had one, as they do today.
Even though the NSA did not exist before WW II, the world of signal's intelligence, or SIGINT, goes back to the Boer Wars in 1900.
Crude, and not used to great purpose at that time, SIGINT began to have a more serious impact in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 when the British intercepted signals by the Russians mobilizing their fleet.
Declassified documents reveal that then President Teddy Roosevelt deemed this emerging capability as "mighty handy" and established a secret sub-committee within the Interstate Commerce Commsion (ICC) to explore possible uses beyond military intelligence.
By 1910, President Taft, approved a plan by the ICC Sub-committee to clandestinely record all telephone calls in the U.S..
Using the Mann-Elkins Act as a type of regulatory and financial "cover" for the operation, it was completed and made operational in 1917.
With funding cleverly hidden within the ICC budget, the ICC dutifully collected these recordings until 1934 when the newly created FCC took control of the operation.
Interestingly, the Commission was actually able to keep costs down by recording on cylinders instead of the Grammaphone-type records that were rapidly gaining in popularity.
No longer popular, cylinders became incredibly cheap. As the inventory began to decline, however, the more common shellac-based discs were used.
In 1952, recordings and operations were again transferred, but this time to their final resting place, the NSA, under orders of President Truman.
Ancestry.com has been working for several years now with the NSA, providing staff to perform the digitization process on the old recordings.
Paid subscribers will be able to search to see if any recordings are available of their ancestor and download them in various formats, or simply play them online.
There are some limits, however - only recordings 75 years or older will be released. Newer content will be released on an annual basis.
Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry explains:
"Most States put a limit on what vital records may be released to the public for genealogical purposes.
"Typically, when an individual dies, their records are only available to immediate family members.
"Public release is only allowed after some specified time period, which varies by State.
"In accordance with this practice, we have, with the consent of the NSA, established 75 years as our cutoff.
"We believe this affords the best balance of public interest and privacy.
"This will provide us with a collection of recordings from WW I to the beginning of WW II, and expand every year."
Content will become available in April of next year, in honor of the U.S. entry into WW I, with a portion of the proceeds going to the NSA.
Is there a link or is this a piece of original satire?
Satire, indicated in the topic/keyword as “humor”.
The word “Satire” is required to be in the title of the thread, per the moderators.
Love that show.
“Love that show.”
The Mystic Knights of The Sea lodge hall.
This is supposed to be funny? How?
I believe Ancestry.com has a deal wit the NSA to provide them (NSA) with access to all their records, if not a direct feed. Sort of like Skype and FaceBook have with the NSA as well.
Only wants DNA data collected from people enrolled in the heritage check. That would not uprise me at all. All I can say is if they hand it over www.ancestry.com is done.
I have just received my results for my DNA research from Ancestry.com Luckily I do not have any qualms here. What gets to me is the elaborate procedures and various jump through the hoop paper work involved. All this to assure applicants of their utmost integrity in these matters. Even to the point of having a definite "no name, no family tree, private" indicator.
Originally they did not have a Canadian address. They would only send the DNA kit to the USA, I gave them an address just across the border in Michigan. It is a convenient service for Canadians for a small fee. There are individual lock boxes there. I wanted the kit sent there. I phoned them in Utah about it and they were so hostile and interrogative, I hung up on them. Thought I was pulling something. Finally they got a Canadian outlet for Canadians to get the kit.
Yes, if they lie about it (privacy) they deserve an end to their money tree.
Food for thought indeed.
This was my own comment.
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