[IP] AT&T jokes about warrantless wiretapping

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: Tom Fairlie [tfairlie@frontiernet.net]
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 12:08 AM
To: David Farber
Subject: AT&T jokes about warrantless wiretapping

Hi Dave,

(I credit The Consumerist for this story; others may have broken it first)

Go to AT&T's Online Billing site and you can see their latest marketing
push: http://www.consumer.att.com/onlinebilling/

It says: "Ms. Suspicious has nothing to hide. Well, she has a little to
hide, but her love of Online Billing isn't one of them. She and the other
Online Liberation Movement(sm) members have all made online billing work for
them, whether they need simplicity, convenience, flexibility, or just peace
of mind."

It looks like AT&T wasn't satisfied just to poke fun at the Luddites who
don't like to make financial transactions online (even if that *is* a
relatively sane position). No, now they are making fun of people who are
already online but value their privacy and/or their desire to keep at least
some of their personal browsing ...ah... personal.

Oh well. If President Bush can joke about missing WMDs [*] then why can't a
simple telecom company joke about wiretapping?

Tom Fairlie

* http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/26/bush.wmd.jokes/index.html

Full disclaimer: My shock over the Bush wiretapping scandal is somewhat less
than Captain Renault's alarm over discovering that gambling was going on at
the Casablanca. It's an open secret in the telecom business that the
government has long had ears everywhere.




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