Verizon, BT, Vodafone, Level 3 'let NSA jack into Google, Yahoo! fiber'

In October, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden claimed Uncle Sam's spies tapped into the optic-fiber cables linking the data centers of Google and Yahoo! By intercepting this flow of information, agents were able to spy on folks' online activities on a massive scale. Google and Yahoo! insisted they did not hand over the keys to …

[Schultz]

It's just a tool...

for those in power to control and supervise the people. The people should be the ultimate source of power in a democracy, so there should be nothing to worry, right? Except, that the people are not informed and the authorities show great willingness to use all tools at hand to manipulate public opinion. The elected government and the unelected members of the administration create secret tools to control their populace when really the populace should control them.

[Gordon 10]

Huh?

BT, Voda, etc - please tell me which law forces you to comply with a request to apply a wholesale tap to a piece of fibre?

Failing that show me the court order.

Failing that release the emails showing what the quid pro quo / threats were.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Huh?

@Gordon 10: "which law forces you to comply with a request to apply a wholesale tap to a piece of fibre?"

The law of "Let us do this or we'll kill your wife and kids."

[Terafirma-NZ]

Pretty sure if I did this I would get locked up for ever under some hacking law.

Maybe I can sue them under copyright law for downloading all my personal files that I did not license to them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Backup

If you can't stop them Join them. If you want your emails to be recovered just call NSA. The cost of backing up stuff is rising. why we should pay twice ? Let them do it for you.

[Roj Blake]

What surprises me is not the BT agreed to this without complaint, but that they were competent enough to get it done without breaking everything.

[Anonymous Coward]

lets just think about it for a second.

What if, instead of Mr. Snowden - IT guy, the person who got fed up was a f-18 pilot, or b-2 pilot. Obviously, the b-52 pilot would have to convince a few people to go along, but the results would be similar. Can you imagine a b-2 making a bombing run against The Pentagon or NSA headquarters?