AT&T selling data to the CIA

Good news free enterprise fans. AT&T is apparently making money off of its phone data by selling to the CIA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/cia-is-said-to-pay-att-for-call-data.html?_r=0

The cooperation is conducted under a voluntary contract, not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the company to participate, according to the officials. The C.I.A. supplies phone numbers of overseas terrorism suspects, and AT&T searches its database and provides records of calls that may help identify foreign associates, the officials said. The company has a huge archive of data on phone calls, both foreign and domestic, that were handled by its network equipment, not just those of its own customers.

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So is this Big Brotherism or isn't it?

It's a company selling information it collected in the normal course of its operations, but the customer is the US government instead of an ad agency.

Don said:

Free enterprise? Are we talking about a company that for generations held a government-granted monopoly over telephone services, actually relies on volumes of government regulations for its very existence, and spends massive sums of money each and every year buying political influence used to increase its market share and throw up roadblocks to competitors?

That free enterprise? I just want to be sure I've got the term right.

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<Slips into a phone booth (what's that?) and emerges as Disingenuous Man>
Well yeah. They're spending money without anybody interfering with how they're spending it.
</Slips into a phone booth (what's that?) and emerges as Disingenuous Man>

In any case, I don't see the relevance of this. This is a private corporation that obtained information as part of how their systems work. They are then selling that information to the government.

They also plan to sell that and more information to private corporations.
http://gigaom.com/2013/07/03/heres-a-big-shock-att-will-start-selling-customers-usage-data/

<Disingenuous Man>
I'm only asking if government obtaining private information by paying for it is morally different from obtaining it by direct spying?
</Disingenuous Man>