Either Verizon is angling for a Department of Defense contract, or one of its Arlington-based presidents, John Stratton, is positioning himself for a sweet ambassadorship.

Either way, the company continues to make clear that customers' privacy means nothing when compared with so-called 'national security' demands.

This became clear during a recent media appearance in Tokyo by Stratton, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, when he slammed Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! for the their joint-lawsuit against the NSA. In doing so, Stratton made clear where Verizon's loyalties lie.

Per ZDNet:



"I appreciate that the consumer-centric IT firms [Yahoo, Google, Microsoft] feel that it's important to grandstand a bit, and wave their arms and protest loudly so as not to offend the sensibility of their customers," Stratton said. "This is a more important issue than that which is generated in a press release. This is a matter of national security."

The lawsuit which sparked Stratton's ire demands that the NSA allow Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! to share more information with consumers about its relationship with the government and dealings with various intelligence agencies.

Verizon, however, appears to view such a lawsuit as nothing but pandering to consumers' concerns.

Imagine that: a corporation responding to consumers' concerns. One might call that a laudable business practice. Another might call it ethical.

Verizon? It's called pandering, particularly when there are laws to follow.



"The laws are not set by Verizon, they are set by the governments in which we operate. I think its important for us to recognise that we participate in debate, as citizens, but as a company I have obligations that I am going to follow."

... routing data, such as the originating and recipient phone number; the IMEI unique phone identifier; the IMSI number used to identify calls on cellular networks; trunk identifiers; phone calling cards; and the time, date, and duration of the calls.

Of course, Stratton qualified much of this by saying civil liberties are important, and that Verizon takes the privacy of its customers seriously. However, such qualifications ring hollow knowing that the NSA was secretly vacuuming up metadata on all of Verizon's systems, including ...This is what a government-centric communications company looks like. For those that are just a bit more consumer-centric?

Just find those companies Verizon executives single out for critique.

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