ZDNET: There’s a big discrepancy between the number of wiretaps reported by the US courts and the number of wiretaps responded to by US phone companies.
Last month, the US Courts’ Administrative Office said the number of wiretaps authorized in 2015, which allow the authorities real-time access to communications, stood at 4,148 wiretaps, up by 17 percent from a year ago. Not a single wiretap request was rejected during the year.
But that figure doesn’t make sense when you look at how many government data demands were processed by the big telcos.
Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint responded to 11,633 wiretaps during the year — almost a threefold increase over the government’s annual wiretap report. (T-Mobile alone said in its latest transparency report that it received hundreds more wiretaps than the government’s official tally.)
And that’s just the cell networks — the difference is likely far larger when you account for landlines and internet companies. more
Why cannot these dolt-headed Dhimmos and undecided voters see what a lying bunch of killers and thieves their leaders are, from Barky on down, through Loretty, SlowJoe, the milktoast Pentagon, ValJar, the FBI, Libby SCOTUS judges, ad nauseum? Denial is more than a polluted stream in Egypt, and more than selective belief systems, it’s a core defense mechanism utilized across the landscape in DhimmoLand. WAKE UP People, before you do so on the wrong side of the dirt!
“No one seems to have an adequate explanation,” ????
Let’s see, do I believe the over-bearing Government intrusion in everyday life or the monopoly telephone providers?
Looks like a toss up.
They’re both lying and under-reporting the wiretaps.
Google taps and copies everything that goes through it’s servers, and is in bed with the leftists in power, especially Barry Soetoro.
Focus JackS, focus.
The article is about regulated public utilities.
Rat, a public utility is an organization that supplies gas, water, electricity, or sewer services to a community.
Google is regulated, as are all corporations.
On top of that, Google provides full phone services via VOIP and has a larger customer base than most of the companies listed in the article.
There is a reason Google wasn’t listed, and it was directly addressed by my post.
Give the knee a rest.
The mega structure in Utah has to be a goldmine for more government intimidation. And as far as phone taps, any bets that 99.99% are christian white voters?
I have a cousin who works for a big credit card company, and she says the feds are always coming in there with demands to pull records on regular citizens.
I used to get accused of wiretapping every time I went up a pole in south-central L.A. I could never get the idiots to understand that if someone wanted to tap their phones, it would be done in the Central Offices where dial tone is generated. I mean, why in the hell would I go through the trouble of climbing a pole, if all I had to do was go to the CO and sit in a nice air conditioned room and run a wire from point A to point B. Even the idiots on TV cop shows can’t seem to figure that out.
JohnS – The telephone system is absolutely a public utilty.
http://www.puco.ohio.gov/puco/
JMV, isn’t most of the backbone VOIP in LA?
It is my understanding that that was completed years ago.
Rat, just because some politician in Ohio hands regulation over to a particular office does not change what it is.
If they handed marriage licenses over to the utilities commission would that make marriage a public utility?
You are pushing leftist crap. words have meanings.
Words mean what the government wants you to think they mean, so ignore the idiots who write dictionaries and look to a government website to find the ‘current truth’ or ‘current definition’.
However, even if I accept your government dictated definition, how does Google not qualify as they are in the top three in telecommunications?
Is it because Google is government sanctioned, like your definitions? Or is it because, like all good lefties, you have stock in Google and don’t want them compared to the other telecommunication giants?
Must hurt that Bernie lost.
Don’t worry, the Revolution starts on the 24th, so don’t give up hope.
Hillary will streamline and simplify outside requests for information from government agencies that watch citizens. Mostly because nobody knows exactly how many of them there are. It’s quite likely some of the smaller agencies don’t even know they are expected to apply to the rubber stamp approval court for permission.
So the standard response under her administration will be “Fuck Off, Peasant”. This simple procedural change will allow the government to respond to informational requests in a much quicker time frame than today.