The Quislings at Ma Bell (and All Other Telcos)

Now it comes to light that they all had standing to go to the FISA Court and challenge the NSA's and the FBI's vacuuming up all of our shit.

None of them did.

In its declassified opinion, the Fisa court revealed that no telecoms company has ever challenged the court's order for the bulk collection of phone records. The opinion, written by Judge Claire V Eagan, implied that by failing to challenge the legality of the programme, the phone companies were passively accepting it its constitutional status.

So even though those weasels all bleat about how they "value our customers' privacy", clearly they do no such thing.

If you pick up the phone, you can assume that the FBI and the NSA are listening in. Even if they are't right then, they can go back and do it. Which is different from Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the government minders had to be listening in to catch anything.