Worthless Words - Promises Broken

We now know that US telcos and ISPs have allowed free access by federal snoops to voice and data on a vast scale. Perhaps even monitoring everything. We also know that they did this without being ordered to by any court, not even the special FISA court set up for that purpose. Below is an excerpt from the Verizon Wireless "Privacy" agreement:

(snip)

Privacy Principles

Our Code of Business Conduct, which is distributed to all employees and can be found at verizonwireless.com, requires our employees to be aware of and protect the privacy of all forms of your communications - whether they are voice, data or image transmissions - as well as your personally identifiable information. The Code makes clear that employees who fail to follow these Principles will face disciplinary action, which can include dismissal. Employees are trained regarding their responsibilities to safeguard your privacy. We strive to ensure that information we have about you is secure and confidential, and to ensure that our employees comply with these Principles. We do not tamper with, intrude upon or intentionally disclose the existence or contents of any communication or transmission, except as required by law or the proper management of our network, or with your consent. Our policy is to limit access to databases containing personally identifiable information to employees, agents, affiliates, suppliers, vendors, consultants and contractors who need it to perform their jobs and in order to serve you - and they are contractually obligated to protect that information. We use safeguards to increase data accuracy and to identify and authenticate the sources of customer information. We use locks and physical security measures, sign-ons and password control procedures and internal auditing techniques to protect against unauthorized use of terminals and entry into our data systems.

(snip)

Read those last words carefully: "unauthorized use of terminals and entry into our data systems". Who, other than a court can possibly authorize such entry? Management must answer that question.