Fergie's Tech Blog

Reports Said to Confirm Lawsuit Linking AT&T to 'Data Mining'

It's not just phone calls, it's e-mail, too, according to a lawsuit that accuses AT&T of turning over vast amounts of domestic phone and Internet traffic to the National Security Agency.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public-interest "digital rights" group with headquarters in San Francisco, said Thursday's report in USA Today on an alleged massive telephone-monitoring program appears to confirm allegations made in its lawsuit against AT&T. That class-action lawsuit, filed Jan. 31 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleges that the phone company lets the NSA scoop up voluminous phone and e-mail traffic at AT&T telecommunications centers.

AT&T said in a statement that it has "a long history of vigorously protecting customer privacy," but also has ``an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare, whether it be an individual or the security interests of the entire nation."

"We prize the trust our customers place in us,? the statement said. "If and when AT&T is asked to help, we do so strictly within the law and under the most stringent conditions. Beyond that, we don't comment on matters of national security."

Thursday's disclosure that the NSA had collected call logs from AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth caused a furor in Washington. Foundation representative Rebecca Jeske said the newspaper report "confirms a lot of what we alleged in our lawsuit."

posted by Fergie @ 5/12/2006 03:08:00 PM