UPDATE: Here is the link to EVERYTHING, the documents, the story, you name it. Better download it now, because you know the government will be shutting down this story fast.
Oh man, this is bad. And it's worse than we realized:
In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities.They're spying on EVERYTHING that happens on the Internet, EVERYTHING you do, that means emails, chats, IMs, Web sites you visit, pictures you send, and any video chats you have.
Then there's this:
In San Francisco the "secret room" is Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T.Well, if I worked in that building, I'd be getting my ass out of there pronto. And I'd sue AT&T as the reason I'm breaking my lease. I wouldn't feel safe being in the building that Al Qaeda now knows is THE center of America's domestic eavesdropping program. Way to go AT&T, you'd just made every American telecom employee a suspected agent of the CIA when they travel abroad. Lovely.
WIRED explains why they published the documents.
And remember, AT&T did something their customers never thought they would do. They listened.
