Now That Vodafone Has Come Out With A Real Transparency Report, Will US Telcos Follow Suit?
from the of-course-not dept
On Friday, we reported the surprising fact that Vodafone had not just followed the latest trend in issuing a transparency report, but actually flat out admitted that many governments had direct access to its phone lines, which allowed those governments to listen in on calls without a warrant. That level of transparency is great, because all too often with the "transparency" reports we've seen from some companies, they seem more focused on hiding what's really going on. Too frequently, this is because of requirements from the government, which has (almost certainly illegal and unconstitutional) gag orders on what companies are allowed to say about requests for government information. However, it's almost certainly also because companies are now afraid of admitting the kinds of things they've allowed governments to do in secret -- and are worried about how the public would respond.However, I'm hopeful that Vodafone's decision to just step up and admit the level of access that governments have had will lead other companies to "come clean" on the sins of their past, and how they've given governments way too much access. Rather than have it leak by a whistleblower, to have the companies step up and admit to exactly what's gone on, while at the same time calling for a change in laws and policies (as Vodafone did) might actually help to restore some confidence that these companies aren't just happily handing over access, but are willing to publicize what's happening and also fight back against the excesses as well.
In the US, for example, it was a remarkable struggle just to get the big telcos to finally agree to issue transparency reports -- and when those transparency reports were released, they were remarkably opaque, rather than transparent. Such a transparency report does little to build confidence in what's happening, and actually breeds greater distrust. Coming clean, saying what's really going on, and how the telcos plan to move forward, seems like the only real way to rebuild any semblance of trust.
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Filed Under: surveillance, telcos, transparency
Companies: at&t, verizon, vodafone
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Canary of some sort?
I know that there's a lot of ways that this could get very complex very quickly but surely there's a way to create the right group of inclusion/exclusion statements for nearly any situation...
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Re: Canary of some sort?
About the only way that US corporations will admit to this, is if they see there profit line disappearing and that credited to the damage received from the NSA fallout. Even then it is more likely to go the way of Goggle, who is saying they are securing their datalines but are not saying whether the NSA has issued them NSLs. I doubt you will hear that one out in the open unless the NSLs are ruled illegal.
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I wouldn't even trust JavaScript cryto, because JavaScript is served up by the web server, to the client.
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Re:
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Except they don't mention the US
The land of the free?
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