Monday, January 3, 2011

When Teleco's Spy on Citizens

So, after all, what's the big deal about the Teleco's trying to help out the government in the (eternal, perpetual, never-ending) War on Terrorism?

I mean, after all, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to hide.

So, what's your problem with THAT?

And why should newspapers care?

Why should TV reporters care?

Why should anybody care?

Big deal. Our government is supposed to what? Tell our enemies that we can spy on them? That we know who they are?

What kind of Unamerican are you? A liberal? A person whose affection preference is for your same gender? An atheist? A communist? An intellectual elitist? A lover of persons the darker skin tones?

Why do you hate America and its government that is trying to protect you?

And why should it matter to ME?

What do YOU got to hide?






Ponder this story from Speigel Online International:

Telekom Accused of Tracking

Journalists' Mobile Phone Signals


The allegations against German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom just keep on coming. SPIEGEL has information that Telekom tracked journalists' movements using mobile phone data. And the company may have hired ex-Stasi spies to help.

In addition to rifling through telephone records for a year from 2005 to 2006 to determine the extent of contacts between management and journalists, it now looks as though Telekom was also using mobile phone signals to keep track of their locations.


According to information from SPIEGEL, Telekom sought to follow the movements of journalists covering the telecommunications company as well as members of Telekom advisory boards, in an effort to determine how sensitive company information was finding its way into business magazines and newspapers. Public prosecutors are investigating that and other allegations following Thursday's search of company headquarters in Bonn.


In addition, German newspaperSüddeutsche Zeitung on Friday reports that investigators are also looking into whether Telekom nosed into bank data of journalists and company managers.


Also on Friday, SPIEGEL TV reports that a Berlin private detective company allegedly hired by Telekom to spy on a business journalist as far back as 2000 was founded and run by former employees of the infamous East German secret police, the Stasi.


The Financial Times Deutschland reported on Thursday that Tasso Enzweiler, who reported on Deutsche Telekom for the paper, was spied on with hidden cameras in an effort to determine who was passing him sensitive company information. Telekom has denied knowledge of the 2000 incident.


The spying scandal broke last weekend following a SPIEGEL story indicating that the company was cooperating with public prosecutors to determine the veracity of allegations that the company hired outside companies to spy on journalists and managers. Telekom has since admitted that, during a one-year period from 2005 to 2006 -- at a time when the company was under the leadership of former CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke and supervisory board head Klaus Zumwinkel -- the company turned over telephone connection data to a Berlin firm to find out who in the firm was speaking with which business journalists. Company management was growing increasingly frustrated at the number of insider stories hitting the headlines.




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