Verizon had been dead silent about the NSA spying revelations, and their role in it. That was until recently, when the company broke their silence to accuse companies like Google and Yahoo of "grandstanding." The problem is those companies at least tried to stand up to the government on things like PRISM and national security letter gag orders, whereas leaks suggest Verizon chose to go above and beyond what was asked of it by government, despite the program's tenuous legal footing.

Not helping Verizon's image much last week was Marcus Sachs, Verizon's VP of national security policy. While seemingly well-intentioned, Sachs informed attendees of a security conference last week that securing your information really isn't Verizon's problem. From Tom's Guide:

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"If you're worried about it, do something about it. Take security on yourselves, and don't trust anybody else to do it. Don't look at us to protect your data. That’s on you," he told Tom's Guide at the Cyber Security Summit 2013, held on Sept. 25 in New York City. "There are services out there [that offer privacy] up to a certain point," Sachs said. "You want encrypted phone calls? There's an app for that."

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While looking out for your own security is rather obvious advice, Sachs just floats over the fact that Verizon has historically made this as difficult as possible.

Self empowerment on the privacy front has already never been more difficult, as the NSA warrantlessly taps into nearly every shred of data (encrypted or not), while the FBI uses malware to attack services like Tor. But Verizon's total failure to stand up to government on any front, their sale of location data to anyone and everyone, and their fighting tooth and nail against consumer privacy protections of any kind aren't exactly what one might call helpful.