No, not coal mining...
data mining.
The telecoms have to feel this right now, and feel it good.
I'm giving it a crack.
Why not report communications providers' actions on sites that provide information and comparisons to consumers?
For Examples
www.epinions.com
Go there now and keep me from getting troll rated, if you think that's worthwhile, as they're jumping me already.
UPDATE:2006-01-04 FCC Filing by US Telecom Association, see comment below for details.
This light bulb arrived as I happened to be mulling, "How great would a new phone be, that took pictures & video? I could shoot to my blogs, I could crawl out from behind this thing here."
My old local blog at duff blog and the new one at liberty blog, are beyond ready for attention & new material, in addition to my near-rapt focus here at dKos.
So I'm shopping for a groovin' cameraphone...squintin' at VerizonWiretap's site and their services, equipment, costs, etc.
Wweyll...they carry my landline, my DSL, and my celphone and I call them my primary communications provider, so I'm goin' there first, for deals, right?
Right.
So they have some selection, and cool ones for free, and I'm thinking... "Cruise over to Epinions & some other sites to do the trusty old "Actual Comparison, Comments, and Complaints by Users" bit.
I flicked to the page of Epinions on Verizon Wireless for the Los Angeles area. And that's where it hit me. I can't shop here. I can't stand this. Where can I shop.
To me it seemed reasonable to express my opinion there, which is this:
No problems with function or the equipment.
HOWEVER
They can hear me now, that's for sure.
What's up with the spying collaboration?
Are all the service providers in on this?
You figure it out
Verizon has apparently been colluding with and profiting from the U.S. government's broadscale data mining project. The president has circumvented the FISA court, thus violating the FISA decision. thus violating not only my service contract, but also my constitutionally guaranteed protections against warrantless searches.
THAT PRETTY MUCH TRUMPS ALL, wouldn'tcha say?
Well fine. School me if I might've said more, less, or whatever.
Seems two users right away rated my post "Don't show", which apparently causes the post not to appear on the main list for the service when sorted by date. Fascinating.
One of those users, mnehr, felt strongly enough about it to respond to my comment, as follows:
Comments on "My God! Warrantless Spying." (1 total)
Comment Sorted by
Date Written
Well.. (Reply to this comment)
by mnehr
THAT PRETTY MUCH TRUMPS ALL, wouldn'tcha say?
No, that just shows you don't understand the whole 'domestic spying' issue, FISA, or your Verizon contract.
Executive Order 12949, signed by President Clinton, February 9, 1995 makes the FISA rules you see in the news irrelevant and what the NSA does (spy on terrorists, not you talking to your girlfriend) completely legal.
Jan 03 '06
8:36 am PST
Well, I'm thinking on how to respond to that statement properly, so I dug out EO 12949, which has been touched on before in dKos at ?..(working on this search, will add).
and I've also posted the statement as counterpoint, not trollish, at Armando's recent post on the Risen Book, which I too was reading parts of today at Cryptome.
There must be many other variations on the ratings theme to communicate clear dissatisfaction at the retail ratings level, where probably many casual users land at the world emall, install their shopping slippers and go no deeper.