AT&T Allows a Spy Room To Be Built in St. Louis Facility

Remember when Mark Klein, the AT&T whistleblower, came out and said that AT&T was letting the NSA spy on people's internet activities?

Well, evidently, he was right. More news came out about a spy room over in St. Louis:

In a pivotal network operations center in metropolitan St. Louis, AT&T has maintained a secret, highly secured room since 2002 where government work is being conducted, according to two former AT&T workers once employed at the center.

In interviews with Salon, the former AT&T workers said that only government officials or AT&T employees with top-secret security clearance are admitted to the room, located inside AT&T's facility in Bridgeton. The room's tight security includes a biometric "mantrap" or highly sophisticated double door, secured with retinal and fingerprint scanners. The former workers say company supervisors told them that employees working inside the room were "monitoring network traffic" and that the room was being used by "a government agency."

There you go -- more evidence that AT&T might not be the best choice when it comes to phone service.

On that note, AT&T made a new privacy policy that says that your personal data belongs to AT&T, not you.

AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials.

The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."

The article also stipulates that AT&T customers will have to agree to this new privacy policy in order to keep getting service. That's not the worst part, though.
This is:

The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

You read that right. AT&T will now officially monitor where you go and what you do on the web as a matter of course -- well, by themselves now, not just with the NSA.

To those of you who are stuck with AT&T right now and can't switch out: you have my utmost sympathies.