Vodafone Reveals Warrantless Wiretapping 73
Charliemopps writes "According to Vodafone, multiple governments have installed equipment that collects data on its customers without a warrant. This includes metadata, location data, and voice. They say, "In a small number of countries, agencies and authorities have direct access to communications data stored within an operator’s network. In those countries, Vodafone will not receive any form of demand for communications data access as the relevant agencies and authorities already have permanent access to customer communications via their own direct link." It's a rather long, and very interesting report. Vodafone also criticized the transparency process: "In our view, it is governments – not communications operators – who hold the primary duty to provide greater transparency on the number of agency and authority demands issued to operators. We believe this for two reasons."'
Actually.... (Score:4, Informative)
.....this was always the case. When it came to national security, governments pretty much always did what they wanted.
Case in point; Pre-2001, if the US wanted to spy on American citizens, all the did was ask Canada or Australia to tap them, then shared the information back to them in exchange for the same favor when those countries needed the same.
2 things have now changed:
#1 They do not bother pretending anymore.
#2 We now have the ability to learn about it thanks to the internet (for now). Previously if a whistle blower wanted to leak this info, the gov could easily silence the mega media corps (also known as their propaganda departments).