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When NSA Calls, Companies Answer
Wall Street Journal
When the news broke about the U.S. government’s PRISM program, which collects data from phone companies like Verizon and online sites like Facebook, the reactions and reporting mostly focused on the NSA’s broad ability to know exactly what many Americans (as well as foreigners) are doing, one keystroke or call at a time. For telecom companies like Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T, complying with government requests for information isn’t uncommon: In 2011, Verizon received about 260,000 requests for customer data; AT&T got 49,700 (965 of which it rejected). Essentially, “complying with requests for such data has been part of doing business for much of the past decade,” though Verizon in particular notes that it takes pains to ensure customers’ privacy. And Denny Strigl, Verizon’s former president, says that the company is “between a rock and a hard place here. If people are going to make an issue of this, the issue is with the government — not with the corporate citizen who complies with the law.” Tech companies, meanwhile, are denying any knowledge of PRISM. While public anger does seem to be aimed mainly at the government right now, that can change on a dime, and companies may well suffer from customers’ wrath. On a lighter note, something else any good businessperson should know: Never, ever use the type of graphics the U.S. government did in a slideshow about the program.