DailyTech - Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Take Stand Against NSA Requests

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IT Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Take Stand Against NSA Requests
Sven Olsen (Blog) - May 13, 2006 1:39 PM

11 comment(s) - last by ZmaxDP.. on May 14 at 11:53 PM

The big three cable providers are taking a stand to protect your information, but it may be too little too late

USA today is running an article about the Cable Communication Policy Act of 1984 -- an act which requires cable operators to get expressed consent from the user before passing subscriber information on to third parties, including government agencies.

Comcast does not "provide the federal government access to customer (video, Internet or phone calling) records, or the ability to monitor customer communications, in the absence of valid legal process," a Comcast spokeswoman told USA Today. However, an amendment to the CCPA1984 in 2001 gave government agencies the right to request internet log information from cable internet providers. The information shielded by the CCPA1984 only now pertains to video and VOIP/digital phone services.

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have all admitted to giving user information to the National Security Agency supposedly to aid the agency in tracking terrorists. These companies are not shielded by the CCPA1984 and have a long history of cooperating with government agencies anyway.

Other VOIP carriers have long standing policies of not providing government agencies with any data without subpoena, but considering the recent news "voluntarily mandating" CALEA backdoors at the ISP level, the stance of the cable providers may already be a moot point. Obviously, if US government agencies have the ability to monitor ISP information at the packet level, with or without a subpoena, VOIP and digital phone services can already be monitored.

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Satellites Are Watching

By edlight on 5/13/2006 2:24:01 PM , Rating: 2

They actually can see what you type from satellites.

RE: Satellites Are Watching

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 5/13/2006 2:26:30 PM , Rating: 2

If you don't believe me, just pick up any phone and ask them.

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RE: Satellites Are Watching

By phatboye on 5/13/2006 4:00:02 PM , Rating: 1

someone did that same joke the other day on here

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RE: Satellites Are Watching

By KristopherKubicki

(blog) on 5/13/2006 4:23:53 PM , Rating: 1

It was me probably :(

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RE: Satellites Are Watching

By WileCoyote on 5/13/2006 8:08:27 PM , Rating: 2

Where's the real Kristopher and what have you done with him?!

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RE: Satellites Are Watching

By Zoomer on 5/13/2006 9:49:35 PM , Rating: 2

He has been picked up and shipped to a secure government facility for "processing".

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Sigh

By Soviet Robot on 5/13/2006 11:41:28 PM , Rating: 2

It's great that we live in a country where every citizen is a terrorist until proven innocent.
But like our president said, the constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper.

RE: Sigh

By Shivian on 5/14/2006 5:07:07 AM , Rating: 2

What? Toilet paper?

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RE: Sigh

By Wwhat on 5/14/2006 8:46:48 AM , Rating: 2

In the whitehouse it is yes.

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RE: Sigh

By ZmaxDP on 5/14/2006 11:53:34 PM , Rating: 2

Yet in China, every one of you would be jailed and beaten, perhaps even executed for what you posted (if you replaced president with chariman) and I would likely get the same treatment for reading it.

So just remember we're a long way from China still, and no matter what one president does, there will always be another to change it back in another few years. We will never become like China. The question is when will China surpass us?

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The Feds

By phatboye on 5/13/2006 2:14:58 PM , Rating: 2

The feds are getting too powerful. It won't be too long before they are monitoring our phone calls 24/7 and telling us what web sites we are allowed to visit just like what China is doing now.