Most put security ahead of privacy

Say that sharing call records OK

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff  |  May 12, 2006

Mark Jellison, a Verizon customer in Quincy, isn't fazed that his phone company may have turned over his calling records and those of millions of others to the National Security Agency as part of an effort to thwart terrorism.

''After 9/11 our world has changed," Jellison said yesterday, standing outside a grocery store in Dorchester. ''Prior to 9/11, I would have been more concerned, but I'm less concerned today."

Added William MacKenzie, a Verizon customer from Taunton: ''I have nothing to hide, so I don't have a problem with it. If it's for the security of the country, it's OK with me."

Those interviewed yesterday overwhelmingly said the possibility of phone companies handing over records to the government didn't alarm them and wouldn't make them walk away from any of the companies. Telecommunications giants Verizon Communications, AT&T Corp., and BellSouth Corp., according to a story first published in USA Today, agreed to share customer information with the NSA. One company, Qwest Corp., however, refused to cooperate.

NSA officials said the deal didn't involve listening to or recording conversations, but instead focused on tracking phone numbers and local and long distance calls made in order to detect patterns. The newspaper said the three phone giants had been providing the call records under contract with the NSA since shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

The report did not specify what type of call records may have been turned over to the government, but noted that the three companies provide calling services to residential and business customers over land lines, wireless networks, and the Internet.

Lisa Pierce, a vice president at Forrester Research in Cambridge, estimates that Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth together account for 90 percent of the country's landlines and two-thirds of its wireless phone accounts. She said it's possible angry customers might desert the companies for a competitor who wouldn't share their records.

''There's not too many people out there who wouldn't be affected by this one way or another," she said. ''The question is who would you move to?"

Edgar Dworsky, a former assistant attorney general in Massachusetts and the current editor of Consumerworld.org, said the news, if true, would probably worry many phone customers, but doubted there would be a mass exodus from the companies because few customers would go to the trouble of switching carriers.

Dan Greenberg, a Sprint wireless customer who lives in the Back Bay, said the turning over of phone records doesn't bother or surprise him.

''My generation, I'm 24, is accustomed to the idea that at basically any point in time, we could be recorded," he said. ''I don't consider cellphones or call records to be in any way secure."

But Daniel Senie, a Verizon customer in Bolton, was outraged that companies would cooperate with the government.

''The corporations involved have long since made it clear customers are numbers, assets to be traded and exploited," he said. ''Our president and his administration operate above the law. I, for one, am ashamed to be an American and embarrassed by our leaders in Washington."

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.