[361] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] AT&T Warns: "Your Calls May Be Tapped!" (and a Bike
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Mon Jun 30 17:14:45 2008
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Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:55:19 -0700
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AT&T Warns: "Your Calls May Be Tapped!" (and a Bike Accessory)
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000395.html
Greetings. AT&T must be feeling pretty good right now knowing that
immunity for their possibly illicit wiretapping operations is
imminent -- and nobody can accuse them of not having a sense of
humor about the whole thing.
In honor of their no longer being federally tariffed as in the past,
AT&T is sending out to their customers the official phone company
Terms of Service. I must admit that I laughed out loud when I
pulled it from the envelope to reveal eighteen pages of fine print
and legalistic terminology that wouldn't have been out of place in a
Hollywood contract or a non-disclosure agreement at NSA.
The pages unfolded like the many credits at the end of the classic
animated program "Rocky and His Friends" ("All on this itty-bitty
card!") -- surprising the cat who happened to be standing beneath me
at that moment.
Outside of the inherent humor in the length of the "agreement"
itself and the concept of sending residential telephone subscribers
documents detailing "Force Majeure" specifications, another
hilarious gem was buried in the contractual verbiage.
AT&T points out in one section that if you don't take steps to
encrypt or otherwise secure your communications on the AT&T network,
your communications are subject to interception by third parties.
Alert the media! AT&T says "Your calls and data may be tapped!"
Not exactly headline news, guys. We know "cover your behind"
legalese when we see it.
However, the mailing of the agreement, even though only a fraction
of the recipients will have the requisite legal training to
understand most of it, may still serve a useful purpose for some
subscribers.
In my case, I was able to use the AT&T document as a handy makeshift
splatter shield while doing some work on my bike yesterday
( http://lauren.vortex.com/bike-att.jpg ).
Who says that there's no upside to being an AT&T customer?
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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