Showing posts with label text messages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label text messages. Show all posts

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Andrew Cuomo Stealth Texting Scandal

* Gov. Cuomo says it's no big secret - reason for unrecorded texting system is fear of hacking. The Daily News reported Monday that Cuomo refuses to communicate by email. If aides can’t talk in person or by phone, they are told to use the BlackBerry PIN-to-PIN messaging system — a function that leaves no lasting trail because it bypasses data-saving email servers. Baruch College’s Doug Muzzio said, “There’s an element of the stealth governorship here. It’s all part of their strategy to tightly control information and message.”

* Gov. Cuomo uses BlackBerry pin-to-pin messaging system to contact key staffers when they can't talk on the phone. A message sent over a data server can always be recovered, even when deleted. Not so for PIN messages, which are gone forever once killed, a spokesman for BlackBerry operator Research In Motion said. And while much of the back-and-forth communication between the governor and his aides is private, it could be subject to subpoena by ethics investigators, prosecutors and possibly members of the Legislature in the event of a probe. All this secrecy, even though Cuomo "promised to have the most open and transparent administration in state history."

Friday, July 13, 2012

AT&T Domestic Cellphone Surveillance

Cellphone carriers filed reports with the U.S. Congress indicating that the telecommunication companies "responded to a startling 1.3 million demands for subscriber information last year from law enforcement agencies seeking text messages, caller locations and other information in the course of investigations. ...AT&T alone now responds to an average of more than 700 requests a day, with about 230 of them regarded as emergencies that do not require the normal court orders and subpoena. That is roughly triple the number it fielded in 2007, the company said," according to The New York Times.

2012-05-29 ATT Response to Rep Ed Markey - Domestic Spying

Read more letters to mobile carriers reagrding use of cell phone tracking by law enforcement on Rep. Ed Markey's website.