more on FCC cites terrorism fears, blocks release of phone outage data

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 28, 2004 9:36:45 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: lauren@xxxxxxxxxx, quasara@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: FCC cites terrorism fears, blocks release of phone outage data


Dave,

In an age where competitive pressures make it ever harder to pry any
meaningful data from carriers and telcos regarding quality of
service, the FCC's decision to cease releasing outage data will not
contribute in any significant way to national security, but will
provide a major contribution to those firms desirous of covering up
for incompetent operations.

Perhaps this isn't as big a deal as the cutoff of all manner of
important public safety-related data that has been proceeding under
the auspices of the "Osama Excuse" -- but it's a dramatic example of
muddy reasoning at best or perhaps even of activites bordering on
collusion at worst.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40329-2004Aug27.html


--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@xxxxxxxx or lauren@xxxxxxxxxx or lauren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - 
http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
                     Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy