VERIZON FORCED TO GIVE OUR INFO. TO GOV'T

 

 

'Outrageous': Verizon reportedly forced to turn over customers' phone records (It says the order will be declassified in April 2038...)

WTF? 

STAY OUTTA MY PHONE & COMPUTER !!!

(CNN) -- The U.S. government has obtained a top secret court order that requires Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of Americans to the National Security Agency on an "ongoing daily basis," the UK-based Guardian newspaper reported.

The four-page order, which The Guardian published on its website Wednesday, requires the communications giant to turn over "originating and terminating" telephone numbers as well as the location, time and duration of the calls -- and demands that the order be kept secret.

If genuine, it gives the NSA blanket access to the records of millions of Verizon customers' domestic and foreign phone calls made between April 25, when the order was signed, and July 19, when it expires.

While the report infuriated people across the country -- former Vice President Al Gore called the idea "obscenely outrageous" -- a senior official in the Obama administration defended the idea of such an order early Thursday.

Report: U.S. phone records go to the NSA

 

Without acknowledging whether the order exists, the administration official emphasized that such an order does not include collection of "the content of any communications or the name of any subscriber. 

It relates exclusively to metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call."

"Information of the sort described in the Guardian article has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States, as it allows counter terrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States," the unnamed official said in a written statement to media.

The official also insisted that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorizes intelligence collection. Activities "are subject to strict controls and procedures under oversight of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FISA Court, to ensure that they comply with the Constitution and laws of the United States and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties."

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That response was unlikely to quell the quickly growing criticism.

"While I cannot corroborate the details of this particular report, this sort of wide scale surveillance should concern all of us and is the kind of government overreach I've said Americans would find shocking," said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Gore, in a tweet, also criticized the move.

"In the digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?" he said.

Verizon spokesman Edward McFadden declined to comment on the report.

According to the document published by The Guardian, Judge Roger Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court signed a "secondary order" granting an FBI request for access to the records.

The FBI did not respond to a CNN request for comment. The NSA told CNN it will respond "as soon as we can."

The order does not say why the request was made, but it bans the government and Verizon from making the contents public.