[liberationtech] quid pro quo

[Joseph Lorenzo Hall]

On 9/10/13 4:51 PM, Kyle Maxwell wrote:
> In general, as has been well documented, the telcos and other firms
> charge the government for data records. While possibly distasteful
> ("they're making money off of giving our data to the gov!"), it makes
> sense from an operational point of view: there are real, concrete
> costs associated with storing, retrieving, and providing those data to
> "valid" requests, not to mention the process of handling sensitive
> requests in the first place. So I'm not sure the counter approach
> ("provide it to us for free") is a good idea, either.

Yes, some of the reporting in the last weeks about the NSA's black
budget teased out these compensation relationships a bit, e.g.:

NSA paying U.S. companies for access to communications networks
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-08-29/world/41712151_1_nsa-national-security-agency-companies

-- 
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
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