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back to article Surprise! World stunned to learn that AT&T is in the NSA's pocket

It has long been known that AT&T works with the NSA to monitor the internet traffic and call data in the US and overseas. Now, new files leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden show the company is by far the agency's biggest spying partner. The document trove, published by ProPublica and The New York Times, doesn't mention AT&T …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And the other Telcos?

    Read James Bamford's book, The Shadow Factory, which explains that all the Telcos were "encouraged" to help Big Brother.

    9 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Gimp

      Re: And the other Telcos?

      Well doubtless they're all "encouraged" but

      Memos describe the telco [AT&T] as showing "extreme willingness to help with the NSA's SIGINT and Cyber missions," and call the relationship "unique."

      God knows what must comprise AT&T's "unique" "extreme willingness" --->

      18 0 Reply
      1. Salts
        Reply Icon

        Re: And the other Telcos?

        @AC

        I seem to recall AT&T wrote a special language a subset of C that was designed specifically to sift through call data, open source, but that is showing a willingness to go the extra mile, so god knows what else they have done.

        This could be it but running out of edit time to confirm

        http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bonachea/hancock/hancock.pdf

        2 0 Reply
  2. oldtaku Silver badge

    "We lie constantly, to everyone, even under oath," Brad Burns, an AT&T spokesman, reaffirmed.

    27 0 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    NSAT&T

    Just sayin'. I think it would look good as the New AT&T Logo.

    16 0 Reply
    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Reply Icon
      Childcatcher

      Re: NSAT&T

      Why? Because the current "Death Star" motif doesn't get the idea across?

      6 0 Reply
  4. Sureo

    1.1 billion cellular call records a day

    Who's paying for all this? Their customers and the taxpayers (everyone, twice over).

    11 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    drop two office blocks, enslave the human race...

    ...not a bad deal.

    12 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: drop two office blocks, enslave the human race...

      Shirly that should be three office blocks

      http://www.ae911truth.org/

      4 2 Reply
      1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        The plan was for two. The third one was just an operational bonus.

        1 1 Reply
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          Now whose operation would that be?

          And I'm free, free falling

          Yeah I'm free, free falling

          0 0 Reply
  6. 404

    Ma Bell...

    ... is back! Funny how that works.

    Ma Bell was broken up by the Feds, of course she would show extreme willingness to get it all back, and more...

    smh

    7 0 Reply
    1. Youngone Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Ma Bell...

      Nothing is free, everything has a price. The price of co-operation looks like a recreation of the monopoly.

      4 0 Reply
  7. P. Lee
    Pirate

    >"We do not voluntarily provide information to any investigating authorities other than if a person's life is in danger and time is of the essence," Brad Burns, an AT&T spokesman, told ProPublica.

    Better hope they aren't cutting off one non-essential limb at a time then!

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      WTF?

      I would hazard to guess that with the "War on Terror" someone's life is always in danger and time is always of the essence. Makes sense to me! Sheesh, are they for real? 24, 24x365.25 (approx.)

      6 0 Reply
      1. Mark 85
        Reply Icon

        Let's not forget to think about the children, shall we? They're always in peril. </sarc off>

        3 0 Reply
    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      And how exactly do the automatic transfer machines know if the person is in danger ?

      As far as I understand, there is nobody flagging this or that record for transfer, it sends everything and lets God the NSA operatives sort it out.

      4 0 Reply
    3. Peter Simpson 1
      Reply Icon
      Black Helicopters

      Not voluntarily...since 2003

      (and probably WAY longer than that)

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

      2 0 Reply
  8. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

    Nothing to see but plenty to hear

    all the same, move along now..

    Spooks listen

    0 1 Reply
  9. ecofeco Silver badge

    Of course they are surpsied

    Because they have forgotten.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Corporation#Involvement_in_the_1964_coup_in_Brazil

    0 1 Reply
  10. Lynrd

    wrong company but thanks for playing

    ITT is actually a different evil company than AT&T

    4 0 Reply
  11. JCitizen
    Gimp

    And this is why

    I'm glad I'm no longer an AT&T customer - of course even the local association ISP is probably just as bad. But the way AT&T practically brags about it, rubs me raw!

    1 0 Reply
  12. Jonathan Richards 1
    Pirate

    Not as unique as one would like

    Memoranda may call the relationship "unique" but it has features very similar to that between Cable & Wireless (latterly Vodafone) and certain arms of Her Majesty's Government.

    Try putting "GERONTIC +cable" into a discreet search engine.

    3 0 Reply
  13. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Well, it's not voluntarily if they have to, is it?

    0 0 Reply

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