AMERICAblog: CNN: Verizon employees breach Obama's private cell phone records
Blog Witch
· 1 year ago
So. How's that FISA vote working out, Mr. President-Elect?
Might be a good idea to have another look at it, don'cha think?
Sheesh ...
ProgressiveTroll
· 1 year ago
My thoughts exactly. I think all the phone records, email records, library records etc. should be posted for every Dem that voted for FISA.
aquarius2
· 1 year ago
I was thinking the same thing.
paulbot5
· 1 year ago
Anyone honestly think the democrats were NOT in the pockets of lobbyists? lol
gtaylor
· 1 year ago
Just thinking aloud here, but why are they able to determine that they are his call records? Wouldn't any high-profile person have the phone registered in another, anonymous name?
Nakedtiny
· 1 year ago
Well, that would be fraud.
You might use a phone registered to a company or to another person, but most carriers tie their premium service to your credit. Thus a SSN, D/L, and/or similar ID.
It sounds like this was a simple old flip phone account that he used to use before he was a big deal.
Nakedtiny
· 1 year ago
Most wireless carriers have a VIP section that handles the accounts of notable persons. But the fact of the matter is that anyone can walk into a wireless store, give a phone number to a sales rep, and have the account pulled up. The rep should then verify the account with picture ID. The new CPNI regulations make it a crime to leave customer information around where people can find it, punishable with steep penalties. Ultimately, though, if you're a customer at a wireless carrier, people can look at your account and acquire your name, address, payment history, contract dates, your cell number, and anything else. And to a certain extent, the carrier NEEDS that information. (How else to send you a bill?)
To a certain extent this is much ado about nothing. Some shmoes at Verizon broke an existing law and are going to pay the price for breaking that existing law. (Since the breach left, no doubt, record of entry and access and who performed it.)
What more can congress do to protect your information, exactly? I don't get it.
SoLeftImRight
· 1 year ago
Mmmmm...telecom immunity...so delicious.
Mike_G
· 1 year ago
We've seen demonstrated egregiously over the past week that the Senate is a smug little private club of assholes who only look out for each other. Of course, if someone were to acquire their cellphone records, it would be an epic outrage and urgent national priority to pass laws to secure them. The Surveillance State is only for the little people.
ProgressiveTroll
· 1 year ago
The minute long taboo standing ovation of the seven count convicted felony man Stevens is proof of that if nothing is. Forget Bush, when the pitchforks are gathered, the Senate should be the first stop, with fair warning to Mr. Feingold.
Attila the Blond
· 1 year ago
Sure can give one pause regarding how FORGIVING they have been to ol Traitor Joe Lieberman... wonder who keeps track of Congressional calls so Joe can maintain such loyalty from DEMS after all his campaigning for the GOP.
Blackmail is such an ugly word, but such an effective tool.
Nakedtiny
· 1 year ago
Such laws already exist.
Nakedtiny
· 1 year ago
Seriously. Google or Wiki about CPNI. It's been on the books since 1996, and was recently revised with harsher fines, stiffer penalties, and more narrow definitions.
What was posted about here is a violation of laws already on the books, and is being actively investigated by the authorities accordingly.
Attila the Blond
· 1 year ago
And we were wondering why such a tightly run campaign could suddenly get so leaky? Uh-huh, now we have some new reasons to consider for all the leaks.
CPL
· 1 year ago
John, you already proved that no one's cell phone records are safe.
You purchased the phone records of Gen. Wesley Clark to make the case for the loss of our privacy (either it was you, or someone you knew), and wrote a blog post about it two years ago.
cole3244
· 1 year ago
make verizon pay economically, if the congress won't do anything then the public must take retribution on their own.
Nakedtiny
· 1 year ago
In early 2007 the FCC passed new regulations making $130,000 fines possible for single infractions of this sort, up to $1.3mil for continued abuse. The fact that this was reported to Obama in the first place is because of these CPNI regulations recently adopted by the FCC and part of the 1996 telecommunications act.
Verizon will pay economically.
cole3244
· 1 year ago
thats a one time penalty if it is applied, i want verizon to pay on a monthly basis if some of the public will be outraged enough to drop them as a provider, but thats asking for too much i would presume, thanks for the info though.
Nakedtiny
· 1 year ago
From what I've gathered, this was a case of one to a handfull of Verizon employees accessing a dormant, perhaps cancelled account of Barack Obama's and pulling up his bill. I doubt this will reach the level of outrage.
R.E.
· 1 year ago
This sort of thing happens frequently on a massive scale. Companies often allow employees access to more data than they should, and often lack the simple ability to audit trail and see who accessed what. I wrote more about this toping on my Privacy 2.0 blog
God's Country Not Nobama's
· 1 year ago
What does he expect? Totally privacy now that he was elected president? come on dumbass. You asked for it.
Shay
· 1 year ago
Your response is ignorant! I think we know who the dumb*** is!
gonzalez
· 1 year ago
Who gave this country to God? This country belongs to the people unfortuntely we have people like you who relies on religion for everything. Get a life!
steve
· 1 year ago
I think we all know who gave this country to god. We did - by electing total morons like Pelosi and Reid to "lead" us. Lead us to where. Armageddon! Total incompetence. Republicans are bad, but democrats are the worst and are insufferable.
dick
· 1 year ago
I agree. He wants to see everyone elses internet records from there entire life if they are to work at the White House. Why is there even records kept from Internet usage for years?? No one should have to have something they said in a context not fully exlpained kept as document for life. Bull shit.
susand1948
· 1 year ago
Throughout the past several years A LOT of irresponsiblity and the slip slide actions of sooooo many in postions of power is the sum total of where the US is today.
The political leaders and munions did some pretty ugly stuff during this camplaign and guess what ?
In the final result - the laws of nature prevail.
What goes around comes around!
No one takes responsiblity for anything but allows anything to go on.
You all have to live in it - and the pile keeps building.
Georgette Orwell
· 1 year ago
I was furious with Verizon and AT&T for releasing information without a warrant, so I cancelled my Verizon service, letting them know why--the $175 fee was worth it. Almost wish I had another account so I could cancel again.
gonzalez
· 1 year ago
We have lost this country to the corrupt republicans and the gutless democrats. Funny thing, the republicans know that the democrats have no balls and they do whatever they want. The Justice department had become the biggest joke in the world.
annatopia
· 1 year ago
i used to work at verizon. just about any employee in the verizon wireless arm of the company had access to these records, and every single other customer as well. take it from me, i gave those fuckers 7 years of my life, verizon is a shit-tastic company. i couuld write thousands of words about how bad they are, how shitty they are to their employees, etc ad nauseum.
yall should ALL cancel your verizon service if you have not done so already.
who cares
· 1 year ago
AMEN sistah! I don't work for wireless but the wireline side is equally as shit-tastic. Good luck to you in the future..my days are numbered as the "Reductions in Force"...aka...RIF's......continue....into 2009 I've heard...February......still...I'm scared..single mom, pre-teen son..not much to fall back on. Thank God the great American CEO's are taking care of their people, right?
annatopia
· 1 year ago
they're still RIFfing? sheesh! good luck making it through. i made it thru 3 RIFs @ verizon, still have no idea how. BUT ended up leaving before the last round started on the fGTE side about two years ago.
good luck to you as well. i know it's difficult these days. and yea, those verizon CEOs can eat shite as far as i'm concerned. i had the displeasure of dealing with a couple of those guys from the fGTE side that were old BA execs - total AHOLES. i imagine it's similar across the board. ug!
it's too bad. it was a great job when i started. i sincerely hope you either make it thru the RIFs or find something else that'll pay the bills and then some. good luck!
dick
· 1 year ago
When someone opens anothers US Postal item it is considered a Federal Crime! What is so damn different about listening to phone conversation or looking at cell phone calls or internet usage? Make it a crime so we can fine people also it should prove to be profitable and pay for the legislation that makes it happen. I hate smear types more than theives.
xxx
· 1 year ago
Because the post office is managed by the government, thats why its a federal offense to tamper with the mail. Cell phone companies are not run by the government.
Asphyxia 8
· 1 year ago
This is truly getting out of hand! After reading numerous stories here and elsewhere about lost or breached personal info, I just learned from my insurance company, Cigna, that an (undisclosed) "overnight courier" package containing my data -- including name, address, social security number and confidential medical info -- was "lost" en route to a (undisclosed) "government agency." WTF?!?! To make things worse, this happened way back in July and Cigna just notified me now! I sent a letter a couple weeks ago asking for more details (barely any were provided in the letter or during my phone call), but have yet to hear back. Probably never will. These bastards ALL need to be held accountable!!!
A-8
TL
· 1 year ago
You know, this Obama cell phone 'snooping' ordeal sounds really bad and everything... but I am not surprised. When I worked for a Sprint PCS customer service center about 5 to 7 years ago, I had friends and coworkers that would pull up celebrities' accounts just for fun to see how many minutes they used, what kinds of phones they had, et cetera. To my knowledge, nobody was ever confronted about this, even though it was against company policy. The lack of action against those accessing these customers' information always led me to believe that the company never tracked the access of these high-profile accounts.
At least back then... at Sprint... these high-profile accounts were kept on the same database as the Average Joe customers. Technically, they were supposed to only be accessed by an executive services department, but the software used to get into them was available to employees at all levels of customer service.
The 'lookie-loo' Verizon employees who accessed Obama's account should definitely be fired if they have not been already. However, from my experience, I HIGHLY DOUBT that Verizon as a company was doing much--if anything--to protect Obama's account.
tom
· 1 year ago
I know it looks bad, but I think you are overlooking the point that people are going to get fired probably just for fooling around at work. On a slow day when I worked in wireless, we would look up celebrities. We knew it was wrong and it was not for nefarious reasons, but it was just something cool to do. If somebody wanted info they can get it
lamont Cranston
· 1 year ago
Hmm... NOW can we discuss the retroactive immunity deal given to the Telcos? Amazing how the tune changes when it is the "more equal than others" that have their calls listened to,
Boo boo
· 11 months ago
my mommy works for verizon, and she says work order is horrible. D:
All Comments
Might be a good idea to have another look at it, don'cha think?
Sheesh ...
You might use a phone registered to a company or to another person, but most carriers tie their premium service to your credit. Thus a SSN, D/L, and/or similar ID.
It sounds like this was a simple old flip phone account that he used to use before he was a big deal.
To a certain extent this is much ado about nothing. Some shmoes at Verizon broke an existing law and are going to pay the price for breaking that existing law. (Since the breach left, no doubt, record of entry and access and who performed it.)
What more can congress do to protect your information, exactly? I don't get it.
Blackmail is such an ugly word, but such an effective tool.
What was posted about here is a violation of laws already on the books, and is being actively investigated by the authorities accordingly.
You purchased the phone records of Gen. Wesley Clark to make the case for the loss of our privacy (either it was you, or someone you knew), and wrote a blog post about it two years ago.
Verizon will pay economically.
Republicans are bad, but democrats are the worst and are insufferable.
The political leaders and munions did some pretty ugly stuff during this camplaign and guess what ?
In the final result - the laws of nature prevail.
What goes around comes around!
No one takes responsiblity for anything but allows anything to go on.
You all have to live in it - and the pile keeps building.
yall should ALL cancel your verizon service if you have not done so already.
good luck to you as well. i know it's difficult these days. and yea, those verizon CEOs can eat shite as far as i'm concerned. i had the displeasure of dealing with a couple of those guys from the fGTE side that were old BA execs - total AHOLES. i imagine it's similar across the board. ug!
it's too bad. it was a great job when i started. i sincerely hope you either make it thru the RIFs or find something else that'll pay the bills and then some. good luck!
A-8
At least back then... at Sprint... these high-profile accounts were kept on the same database as the Average Joe customers. Technically, they were supposed to only be accessed by an executive services department, but the software used to get into them was available to employees at all levels of customer service.
The 'lookie-loo' Verizon employees who accessed Obama's account should definitely be fired if they have not been already. However, from my experience, I HIGHLY DOUBT that Verizon as a company was doing much--if anything--to protect Obama's account.
Amazing how the tune changes when it is the "more equal than others" that have their calls listened to,