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Does the Government know more about your calling patterns then you do?

A recent news report has it that the NSA (National Security Agency) have worked ageement with many of the Telecommunication carriers to provide them the Call Detail Records (CDR) of personal and commercial accounts. Those carriers mention include AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. One carrier, Qwest, has been put on record as not providing them the information.

A couple of sources for information can be found at http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

and at the Washington Post. This article has a nice Q&A section.

Many businesses have no idea that their call records are being recorded. This isn’t the context of their conversations, but the number they called, the time of day it was placed and the length of their calls. The Government knows when you call your cleaners to see if your suits are ready and how often. They also know how many time your Assistant gets a call from her mother and how long they talk.

Maybe it’s time to think that if the information is being used by the government to look for possible terrorist activity, you need to find out if your employees are working, or talking to a friend or relative.

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