Call Verizon!

Veritas78 has started with a bang!

From his first post at DailyKos:

I called their Ethics Line, which is staffed by a 3rd-party ethics investigation firm called Global Compliance. I was impressed by how they handled my complaint.

"Rudi" was respectful, took all my information, and took down my questions word-for-word (along the lines of: Did Verizon sell my private information to NSA as reported in USA Today? Did they do so without a warrant? Why did they not notify me that they had done so? Did they violate the law in doing so?) and took the whole matter very seriously. She asked for the name of the USA Today reporter, the date of the article, and was professional about the whole thing. I also got a sense that she gathered the gravity of my complaint.

So if you call, this is what you can expect. At least Verizon bothered to hire this outside firm to take ethical complaints. I suggest we make use of the service. Have your facts on hand and be concise. The people answering the phone aren't Verizon–but every complaint gets logged with a ID number and Verizon will have to decide how to deal with each one.

Be sure to check out the comments! The commenters have added more contact numbers for Verizon customers that they've either found, or been referred to.

Also, someone added the email address of Verizon CEO, Ivan G. Seidenberg: ivan.g.seidenberg@verizon.com  If you do write, keep concise and to the point, and – above all – polite!

Here's the email I sent him:

Mr. Seidenberg,

I am writing in response to yesterday's article in the USA Today by Leslie Cauley.

1. Did Verizon hand over the call records of its customers voluntarily, without a warrant or authorization from the Justice Department, OR were these records sold to the NSA? What law(s) were violated by doing do?

2. Why were Verizon customers not notified that their call records were being given and/or sold to the National Security Agency?

3. Were Verizon's shareholders notified of the NSA request before the records were handed over?

I am extremely angry that a company I do business with would give or sell my call records to a government agency, with no protection for the customer, no regard to the law (most especially the 4th Amendment of the Constitution).

[snip]

Your time and attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

ThinkProgress has this up:

This morning, USA Today reported that three telecommunications companies – AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth – provided “phone call records of tens of millions of Americans” to the National Security Agency. Such conduct appears to be illegal and could make the telco firms liable for tens of billions of dollars. Here's why:

1. It violates the Stored Communications Act  [...]

2. The penalty for violating the Stored Communications Act is $1000 per individual violation. [...]

 

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act doesn’t get the telcos off the hook. [...]

 

Friday Anti-War Song

We Want Peace On Earth — Robert Alan

We're tired of the endless corporate greed
We want a world where all have all they need
We're tired of this culture of violence, tired of this culture of hate
Need a culture of peace before it's just too late

We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We want Peace on Earth!

We're tired of this global economy
Where profits before people is the key
We'd rather have a true democracy
That's fair and just for all humanity

We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We want Peace on Earth!

Our government is never what it seems
Making secret deals behind the scenes
Selling favors, guns and oil deeds
It's supposed to serve its governed people's needs!

We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We want Peace on Earth!

We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We Want Peace on Earth
We want Peace on Earth!

*

Find more like this at New Songs for Peace.