Scams during the holiday season are nothing new but this latest scam has a “…man bites dog” quality to it.
The scam in this case is being run by the vendor offering the service: Verizon.
Karl Bode writes in: Verizon Offers Encrypted Calling With NSA Backdoor At No Additional Charge:
Verizon’s marketing materials for the service feature young, hip, privacy-conscious users enjoying the “industry’s most secure voice communication” platform:
Verizon says it’s initially pitching the $45 per phone service to government agencies and corporations, but would ultimately love to offer it to consumers as a line item on your bill. Of course by “end-to-end encryption,” Verizon means that the new $45 per phone service includes an embedded NSA backdoor free of charge. Apparently, in Verizon-land, “end-to-end encryption” means something entirely different than it does in the real world:
“Cellcrypt and Verizon both say that law enforcement agencies will be able to access communications that take place over Voice Cypher, so long as they’re able to prove that there’s a legitimate law enforcement reason for doing so. Seth Polansky, Cellcrypt’s vice president for North America, disputes the idea that building technology to allow wiretapping is a security risk. “It’s only creating a weakness for government agencies,” he says. “Just because a government access option exists, it doesn’t mean other companies can access it.”
What do you think? Is the added * Includes Free NSA Backdoor sufficient notice to consumers?
I am more than willing to donate my rights to this image to Verizon for advertising purposes. Perhaps you should forward a copy to them and your friends on Verizon.