Posted on 10/25/2016 9:29:25 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt
The telecom giant is doing NSA-style work for law enforcement—without a warrant—and earning millions of dollars a year from taxpayers.
Hemisphere is a secretive program run by AT&T that searches trillions of call records and analyzes cellular data to determine where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why.
In 2013, Hemisphere was revealed by The New York Times and described only within a Powerpoint presentation made by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Times described it as a “partnership” between AT&T and the U.S. government;
the Justice Department said it was an essential, and prudently deployed, counter-narcotics tool.
However, AT&T’s own documentation—reported here by The Daily Beast for the first time—shows Hemisphere was used far beyond the war on drugs
to include everything from investigations of homicide to Medicaid fraud.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
These new revelations come as the company seeks to acquire Time Warner in the face of vocal opposition saying the deal would be bad for consumers.
Donald Trump told supporters over the weekend he would kill the acquisition if he’s elected president;
Hillary Clinton has urged regulators to scrutinize the deal.
While telecommunications companies are legally obligated to hand over records, AT&T appears to have gone much further to make the enterprise profitable, according to ACLU technology policy analyst Christopher Soghoian.
Dr. Johnny Fever was right.
Can someone correct me if I’m wrong here, but I thought that if the government is funding the activity, just like a CSI lab, that the funded party still has to have the same warrants to be able to conduct the search legally.
It definitely shouldn’t hold up in court since any further information gained due to the unwarranted information would be attributed as poison fruit and inadmissible.
Am I incorrect in thinking that contracting the service for the government still holds the same standard?
Communications Utility developed own spy program for fun and profit.
Fever? From WKRP TV show? Sounds prophetic - what did he say?
ping
That is why AT&T doesn't want knowledge of their Hemisphere program exposed.
Sorta like that cellphone tower emulator developed by Harris.
But But But what Wikileaks does is bad.
Its sorta a moral dilemma
If what Wikileaks did was wrong an illegal
How is AT&T's Hemisphere program moral an legally correct.
"Ya pays you dollar, and ya's takes ya chances "
Government surveillance will not change, and will likely increase, no matter who is the next president.
Want to completely avoid this this type of tracking? Simple: eschew use of a cell phone.
AT&T is the worst. They gave me a quote of $120 for basic TV, phone & internet. It was not in response to a ‘bundle promotion’ I had just moved. No mention of a yearly contract. The first bill I received was $200. I paid it, but called and cancelled. I was instructed to return their equipment, which I did immediately. I received another bill for $200 and called again and was advised that I would be sent to collections!!!!!!
Verizon is not in my area, but that is the best company by far.
WKRP was one of the greats.
Hillarious. I miss shows like that.
Loni Anderson on the set doesn’t hurt either.
Thanks.
bump
Their u-verse service is not any better. Not many people know you have to use their modem & router come in one box. You can add your own router as a bridge. At this time, you are not allowed to use other modem. That say it all.
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