Some Foreign Telcos Reportedly Defied NSA Phone Spying Order | Hacker News Reader

Some Foreign Telcos Reportedly Defied NSA Phone Spying Order

techcrunch.com

41 pointsmathattack7 comments

Great example why never to link to a techcrunch regurgitation of some story originally reported elsewhere.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142412788732404950...

The TC version fails basic reading comprehension. The US subsidiaries of the Telcos in question did not defy NSA/FISA court orders - according to WSJ's reporting, their foreign ownership made it difficult for them to participate due to existing legal restrictions external to the companies themselves. Key WSJ paragraph:

Legal, practical and political obstacles are all possible reasons why the two firms are excluded from the NSA program. But current and former U.S. officials say the likely reasons are tied to their overseas ownership. Government requests for data, through special court orders sanctioned by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, are classified "top secret" and "noforn," spy-talk for "no foreign." That would prohibit some T-Mobile and Verizon owners from being aware of the programs.

I'm suddenly reminded of Apple Ireland, the largest owner of Apple's non-US assets, and how Apple, last of the PRISM 9, was made to testify before Congress for tax avoidance.

It's probably just a coincidence.

This is the real method by which Team Government encourages compliance. It'd be a real shame to see that tax loophole that you rely on closed. Nice company you got there. Would be real upsetting if your new corporate headquarters construction were to be held up waiting for a permit.

Mobsters in worse suits.

I submitted the original (better) article at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5883006

Maybe this is true, but T-Mobile USA does outsourced billing via AMDOCS so 100% of call metadata is leaked anyway.

I don't see tower/location info on my (VZW) cell bill... so maybe not all call metadata that the leaked Verizon Business warrant sucked up.

Possibly. I wouldn't count on it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com