Hey, even the FBI gets telemarketing calls
Yep, it’s true. Even the G-men who are trying to track down criminals get calls from those pesky telemarketers.
Buried in a 160-page report by the U.S. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine was a little nugget that the Federal Bureau of Investigation apparently has been receiving calls from telemarketers on telephone lines set up for wiretaps.
When the FBI gets a court order to tap a phone line, they set up telephone lines that deliver those calls to the authorities. However, it turns out that those phone lines are assigned actual numbers by the phone company.
“It is not uncommon for these lines to ‘receive’ calls from telemarketers and others who use auto-dialers and other automated call technology to place calls,” FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said in a letter to the inspector general.
The issue came up when the inspector general expressed concern that an FBI field office had gone beyond the period in which a court ordered wiretap was authorized, known as an ‘overrun’, or had possibly collected material after a judge had ordered the FBI to stop.
As a public service, here’s the link to the Federal Trade Commission’s Do-Not-Call registry in case the FBI wants to avoid getting those calls in the middle of dinner — or a stakeout.
Pearl Jam to Obama: Don’t change your tune on Web issues
WASHINGTON – Rock bands Pearl Jam and R.E.M., the founder of Craigslist, consumer activists and others who backed Barack Obama’s technology-fueled presidential win told the Illinois Democrat on Thursday that they expect him to return the favor.
They were among more than 100 organizations that sent a letter to Obama, who takes office Jan. 20, urging him to lift “the stranglehold industry lobbyists have had on communications policy, and put the public’s priorities first.”
Citing Obama’s words back to him in bullet points, the letter reminded the president-elect of his campaign support for net neutrality, universal broadband and other web-friendly positions. It referred to an Obama speech at Google headquarters where he vowed to “take a back seat to no one in my commitment to net neutrality.”
The fight over so-called net neutrality pits Google and Microsoft against AT&T and some Internet service providers, which want more flexibility to control web traffic by setting higher prices for certain content.
Obama has yet to choose nominees to lead the Federal Communications Commission, which sets telecom policy, or the Federal Trade Commission, which is charged with consumer protection.
Obama’s promise to create a new chief technology officer for the U.S. government is also eagerly awaited by groups that signed the letter. “We look forward to working with the leaders you will appoint,” it said.
The letter was organized by the media advocacy group Free Press and signers included Craigslist founder Craig Newmark; labor group Service Employees International Union; think tank New America Foundation; Consumers Union; American Library Association; National Organization for Women and activist group Moveon.org.
Hey people!
I hate getting those calls too but to want to murder them???? come on. They probably hate their jobs even more than we hate their calls.