Transit, Exchange Point Agreements, and Acceptable Use?

Fri Nov 21 15:07:36 UTC 2014

Paul Ferguson <fergdawgster at mykolab.com> writes:

> I'll apologize up front if this offends anyone's sensitivities as to
> what is relevant for list conversation... but one sentence in this
> Channel4 News story (from what I understand, Channel4 is a very
> popular news source in the UK) struck me as perhaps in violation of
> some sort of peering and/or transit agreement. Cable and Wireless:
>
> "...even went as far as providing traffic from a rival foreign
> communications company, handing information sent by millions of
> internet users worldwide over to spies."
>
> The entire article is here:
>
> http://www.channel4.com/news/spy-cable-revealed-how-telecoms-firm-worked-with-gchq
>
> My question is this: Do willful actions such as these violate peering,
> transit, and/or exchange agreements in any way?
>
> Thanks,
>
> - ferg

Welcome to the modern age of communications.  The privacy nuts and
tinfoil hat types turned out to be correct.  Assume that you have no
privacy and encrypt everything you do.  Or just stop caring about
privacy all together.  Either way, not much has actually changed.