Telcos on Privacy Hot Seat
A U.S. congressman has opened a new front in the investigation of domestic surveillance by President Bush’s administration by sending letters to most of the country’s major telecommunications, cable, and Internet communications firms seeking eavesdropping information.
The request for surveillance information puts the communications firms squarely on the hot seat as issues of customer privacy, national security, and the privacy guidelines under which the firms operate are being addressed by legal scholars and critics of the administration.
Michigan Representative John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent the letter to 20 companies, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Cingular, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and EarthLink.
The letter dated Saturday asked the companies’ leadership whether they have “allowed the federal government to eavesdrop on customer communications” through their facilities or whether or not they have turned over customer records “when not compelled to do so by law.”
posted by Fergie @ 1/24/2006 10:28:00 AM
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