- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
In 2006, a retired AT&T engineer knocked on the door of the EFF’s office in a rundown part of San Francisco’s Mission district and asked, “Do you folks care about privacy?” With him he carried schematics exposing the largest US government domestic spying operation since Watergate.
That person was Mark Klein, who died on March 8 this year from cancer. He was 79.
After a life working in telecoms, Klein realized he had helped the NSA wire up a listening station in AT&T’s San Francisco switching facility - the infamous Room 641A - that was being used to illegally spy on Americans.
The evidence he gathered and shared led to two lawsuits that exposed the extent to which US citizens were being spied on by their own government in the post-9/11 world. Klein faced legal pressure, death threats, and the constant fear of ruin, to get his story out and tell the public what was going on. But Klein regretted nothing.
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Room 641A, the Quest Communications debacle. When I talk to folks outside of online communities folks don’t seem to be very aware of how we got here and how utterly we have failed to protect privacy and freedom.
I forgot about the Qwest one. Their business was hurt because they tried to fight the illegal searching. It has all been going on for so long, and at every turn Congress always turns up the dial to delete privacy from American citizens that are doing nothing wrong. All under the guise of Orwellian paranoia. They could have spent the last quarter century properly regulating the tech industry instead and we’d all be in a better place.
They threw the CEO in jail for insider trading. What any other CEO would have had to pay a fine and say sorry they threw the book at him. I’m not gonna defend the guy, CEOs are scumbags and we should throw more of them in jail. Just not for standing up for people’s rights.
If I recall correctly, it was a flimsy excuse they came up with to punish him for not complying with their illegal wiretaps. Been a long time though, so I may be wrong.