Big Brother is Watching

Today more and more people use their cell phones for email, the Internet, texting, as well as making phone calls. While this makes live easier for many, most people are unaware of the complications it can present as well. If you use of these functions offered by your phone, the phone company has records of it. Depending on the company you use, this means that the government also has these records. AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have all given millions of users’ records to the NSA. The FBI has also abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in order to secure records from these same companies. All of this was done without the customers’ consent or notification, often in direct violation of existing telecommunications privacy laws.

Perhaps even scarier are the baby steps towards censorship that these same phone companies are taking. On Sept. 27, Verizon announced that it would block the text messages from a pro-abortion group. Although the decision was reversed fairly quickly in response to public outcry, both Verizon and AT&T released service agreements that state they have the right to suspend the service of anyone whose conduct is unacceptable.

These statements make it clear that these companies are indeed monitoring their customers’ private communications, and are in fact passing judgment on them.
Privacy used to be something that people could take for granted. Those days are over. National security is important, but so are civil liberties. Cell phones have opened up a whole new world, one that has the possibility, if people aren’t paying attention, of resembling an Orwell novel.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2191479,00.asp
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2191092,00.asp