Millions in US tax dollars go to Big Data for wiretap capabilities

[Catherina]

Millions in US tax dollars go to Big Data for wiretap capabilities

Published time: July 10, 2013 23:52


Ivan Seidenberg (L) , Chairman and CEO of Verizon and and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson (AFP Photo / Spencer Platt)

The US government uses American tax dollars to pay major Internet companies and telecommunications giants like Verizon and AT&T for unprecedented access into millions of phone records and the ability to scour vast online databases.

AT&T charges the government a $325 “activation fee” for each individual wiretap and a daily fee of $10 to maintain it. Verizon, on the other hand, charges government eavesdroppers $775 for the first month of monitoring an individual then $500 in each month that follows, Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) told the Associated Press.

...

Yahoo, Google and Microsoft did not disclose their fees, but the ACLU determined that some email transcripts can cost the federal government $25. Facebook said it grants the government access for free.

...

The average wiretap is estimated to cost American taxpayers $50,000, although one narcotics case in 2011 cost New York investigators $2.9 million in wiretapping alone.

...

http://rt.com/usa/govt-pays-verizon-att-surveillance-922/

[magellan]

1. So we pay twice to be spied on

Actually more than twice if you use a separate ISP.

I'd love to see a budget that details the cost-effectiveness of all this spying. Heck, I'd love to see a budget.

[Catherina]

2. We pay for it twice without our input

Last edited Thu Jul 11, 2013, 04:23 AM - Edit history (1)

I find this mind-boggling.

[magellan]

3. I wonder how much the price of goods and services would go down

...if the MISC were sucked into a supermassive black hole along with its enablers? So many of those endless-war profiteers have their fingers in other pies too.

[Catherina]

4. I was just thinking about that. I think they'd go down quite a bit n/t

[Egalitarian Thug]

5. Not to upset you even more, but Clinton already gave these parasites billions

Last edited Thu Jul 11, 2013, 06:51 AM - Edit history (1)

of our dollars to build connectivity (most of which simply disappeared even as executives became billionaires), so we've paid for it at least three times.

I often wonder where people imagine all the money came from, it's like the morons that think Bill Gates made his money...

[magellan]

6. I don't mind paying for the connectivity or the service

...although I'm not keen on taxpayer dollars turning people into billionaires. But the government using our taxes to pay these services to turn over our information to them is NEW and NOT okay.

[Life Long Dem]

7. Who needs Snowden