Fergie's Tech Blog

Austin Groups Files Class-Action Lawsuit Against AT&T

An AP newswire article, via News8Austin, reports that:

A group of plaintiffs have sued AT&T in federal court Friday over the release of customer phone records to the National Security Agency.

Last week, USA Today reported that AT&T and other phone companies complied with a security agency request for millions of customer phone records after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A spokesman said the San Antonio-based company does not allow wiretapping without a court order and has not given customer information to government agencies without legal authorization.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court. It seeks $1,000 for each disclosure of a call record and $100 per day per violation.

Plaintiffs include Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project and attorney Richard Grigg, who says he uses his AT&T mobile phone to communicate with other lawyers about his client at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

posted by Fergie @ 5/19/2006 04:12:00 PM