Hello Obama? It's Edward Snowden. Can You Hear Me Now?

Edward Snowden has confirmed what we may have suspected all along,  phone companies tape our conversations.  Verizon's successful campaign "Can you hear me now" that we thought was directed to us, the consumer, has been directed to the government.  According the Guardian, since April, NSA has been indiscriminately "collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon."

I wonder what Verizon gets paid to dump our call logs onto government servers, or is that now just a cost of doing business in the United States?

It is unclear whether Verizon is the only mobile carrier being targeted by the National Security Agency. When I called AT&T to change my service yesterday, they asked if I had their permission to record the call.  "Are you kidding me?" I said.  "I now know that I am being recorded without my permission."  But the much maligned representative said I had a choice. She still thinks it's a free country.

The Obama administration is going to collect your records whether or not you are criminal.  If you are a criminal in the planning stages and use Verizon, cease and desist until after July 19.  The secret FISA court gave the government unlimited authority to spy on you for a limited three month period that ends on that date, maybe.

The Administration is using the "business records" provision of the Patriot Act, 50 USC section 1861 to support the legality of their domestic surveillance activities. For two years, Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall have tried to warn the public about the grand scope of domestic spying and now they have help from a whistle blower.

I think we should thank Edward Snowden for shouting this loud and clear.

Article first published as Your Government Can Hear You Now on Technorati.