Report: NYC AT&T Building a Cornerstone of NSA Surveillance The Intercept dropped another bombshell report this afternoon exposing, once again, AT&T's extremely close relationship with the NSA. The report details how a windowless, unlit skyscraper at 33 Thomas Street in New York City isn't just a nerve center for AT&T's east coast communications network, but part of one of the most important NSA monitoring sites in the United States.

Code named TITANPOINTE, the site is a "covert monitoring hub that is used to tap into phone calls, faxes, and internet data" at the behest of US intelligence, notes the report. The Intercept notes how AT&T and its building have played an integral role in helping the NSA spy on communications at the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and at least 38 countries, including close US allies such as Germany, Japan, and France. These behaviors have routinely and repeatedly been criticized by privacy advocates and the international community. The building's surveillance apparatus mirrors earlier revelations made nearly a decade ago by AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein. Klein documented how AT&T was giving the NSA access to live fiber splits and every shred of data that touched the AT&T network. His report resulted in the government actually changing the law to prevent telcos like AT&T from being held liable for violating surveillance and privacy law. The Intercept's report on TITANPOINTE and 33 Thomas Street make it clear that the scale of AT&T's involvement in the government's surveillance apparatus is even larger than most people believed. And the site is just one of several apparently tasked, again, with giving the NSA direct access to communications networks: quote: Inside 33 Thomas Street there is a major international “gateway switch,” according to a former AT&T engineer, which routes phone calls between the United States and countries across the world. A series of top-secret NSA memos suggest that the agency has tapped into these calls from a secure facility within the AT&T building. While numerous tech companies aid law enforcement and the surveillance community, While numerous tech companies aid law enforcement and the surveillance community, numerous reports have now made it clear that AT&T consistently has gone above and beyond in aiding the government, in some instances giving recommendations on how best to skirt around privacy and surveillance law. AT&T's cooperation is so total, it's actually now almost impossible to determine where the NSA ends, and AT&T begins.The full report has significantly more detail and is a must read.







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Most recommended from 22 comments



maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 1 edit 7 recommendations maartena Premium Member Anyone that things this isn't already happening for years.... is a fool.



The warrant is ONLY needed if you plan to present it as evidence in a court room, in order to convict someone. If it becomes part of a criminal case. The police needs such warrants. The NSA.... does not. And yes, I have it on good authority that sysadmins from ISP's can access all of this data at will. They carry a huge responsibility, but as we have seen with Snowden and other leakers.... no one is immune, and every man has his price.



Do I care? No, all I do with my phone is make business calls, text my wife and friends, go on facebook, and use it to play pandora in the car and use Waze to get around.... nothing on my phone could be of any interest to anyone. But it is good to know that your data is not safe. Not on AT&T. Not on Verizon. Not on land line or cable ISP's. If you think YOUR ISP is immune because it is small and ran by IT techies, you are a special kind of stupid.



If you want privacy, you'll have to use a VPN with an endpoint outside of this country. This is nothing new. The NSA has backdoors with all major providers. Simply OWNING a smart phone of any kind with GPS built in allows the NSA to find out exactly where that phone is, and where that phone has been for a minimum of 3 months, but the data is likely kept for years. The NSA (and not just the NSA by the way, also employees of the ISP that might be subjectable to a bribe....) can tell you exactly where your phone was at 3:12 PM on November 4th. Of course it doesn't legally prove that YOU, the human that claims ownership of the phone, was at that location so in court it is considered circumstantial evidence. But still: Your information, your location, your activities, your internet browsing.... EVERYTHING is known by the NSA, and NONE of it requires a warrant to access, courtesy of the Patriot Act.The warrant is ONLY needed if you plan to present it as evidence in a court room, in order to convict someone. If it becomes part of a criminal case. The police needs such warrants. The NSA.... does not. And yes, I have it on good authority that sysadmins from ISP's can access all of this data at will. They carry a huge responsibility, but as we have seen with Snowden and other leakers.... no one is immune, and every man has his price.Do I care? No, all I do with my phone is make business calls, text my wife and friends, go on facebook, and use it to play pandora in the car and use Waze to get around.... nothing on my phone could be of any interest to anyone. But it is good to know that your data is not safe. Not on AT&T. Not on Verizon. Not on land line or cable ISP's. If you think YOUR ISP is immune because it is small and ran by IT techies, you are a special kind of stupid.If you want privacy, you'll have to use a VPN with an endpoint outside of this country.

F100

join:2013-01-15

Durham, NC Alcatel-Lucent G-010G-A

(Software) pfSense

Pace 5268AC

5 recommendations F100 Member This is why Gigapower is slower than Gooogle Fiber...

33 Thomas Street AT&T tower for scale comparison

Blurred for "Security"



Actually I think there is another site in DC area since a lot of the Gigapower trace routes hit a hop over in Washington.



And you have to love how Google Maps is helping protect the veiw of the top of the tower. Notice how blocky it is but look at the cars beside and how much smaller and detailed they are? So now we know why AT&T Gigapower Fiber is slower than Google Fiber. Got to route all that traffic to NYC.Actually I think there is another site in DC area since a lot of the Gigapower trace routes hit a hop over in Washington.And you have to love how Google Maps is helping protect the veiw of the top of the tower. Notice how blocky it is but look at the cars beside and how much smaller and detailed they are?