'Company A': the telecom that coached the FBI on how to spy on me

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/03/company-a-telecom-coached-fbi-spy



Bonner found evidence that 'Company A' had helped the FBI obtain phone records without a subpoena.

'Company A': the telecom that coached the FBI on how to spy on me
Raymond Bonner for ProPublica
theguardian.com, Thursday 3 October 2013 15.25 EDT

Over the past several months, the Obama administration has defended the government's far-reaching data collection efforts, arguing that only criminals and terrorists need worry. The nation's leading internet and telecommunications companies have said they are committed to the sanctity of their customers' privacy.

I have some very personal reasons to doubt those assurances.

In 2004, my telephone records as well as those of another New York Times reporter and two reporters from the Washington Post, were obtained by federal agents assigned to investigate a leak of classified information. What happened next says a lot about what happens when the government's privacy protections collide with the day-to-day realities of global surveillance.

The story begins in 2003 when I wrote an article about the killing of two American teachers in West Papua, a remote region of Indonesia where Freeport-McMoRan operates one of the world's largest copper and gold mines. The Indonesian government and Freeport blamed the killings on a separatist group, the Free Papua Movement, which had been fighting a low-level guerrilla war for several decades.

[daleanime]

1. Kick....

nt