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Savannahmann

(3,891 posts)
Fri Jun 6, 2014, 10:36 AM Jun 2014

Vodafone says that many Government have direct cable access to phone calls.

Vodafone, the international telecommunications company headquartered in London released a report relating to Government Surveillance. In this report, the company claims that this inaugural report covers what they are legally authorized to say by the laws of each country being discussed. In other words, if the laws of the nation prohibit any disclosure of even the policies involved in wiretapping, then the company Vodafone is obviously prohibited from mentioning that nations policies. Some of these nations require hardwired cables that carry all telecommunications data directly to the Government in question. The report says that this is not happening in the UK.


Government agencies are able to listen to phone conversations live and even track the location of citizens without warrants using secret cables connected directly to network equipment, admits Vodafone today.


The company said that secret wires have been connected to its network and those belonging to competitors, giving government agencies the ability to tap in to phone and broadband traffic. In many countries this is mandatory for all telecoms companies, it said.


Vodafone is today publishing its first Law Enforcement Disclosure Report which will describe exactly how the governments it deals with are eavesdropping on citizens. It is calling for an end to the use of “direct access” eavesdropping and transparency on the number of warrants issued giving access to private data.


Now, obviously privacy minded individuals like myself find this most troubling. Moreover, the report itself is suspect, as Vodafone says that they may be prohibited from giving information on what the policies of that Government are.

We know that the US Government did much the same thing during the Bush years. We know that the policies have essentially continued through today under the shadow of the FISA court. What is interesting is how many other nations have pretty much the same policy. Perhaps interesting is the wrong word, perhaps disturbing is a better word. I would point out that the exposure of the illegal wiretapping under Bush Co. was illegal under the same laws that people wave about to defend the actions of the NSA/FBI/DHS/CIA/GCHQ today. It seems you violate national security if you tell anyone that the Government is doing things they're not supposed to. It also seems that the US Government is not alone in suppressing the information about what the Authorities are doing in the name of "protecting" us.
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