Fergie's Tech Blog

Key Senate Committees Threatening to Shelter Telcos for Illegal Spying

Via EFF DeepLinks.

With your help, we've made significant progress in pressuring Congress to scrutinize the NSA spying program. But the fight is far from over -- in fact, the the chairmen of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees are reportedly considering proposals that could let telco giants like AT&T off the hook for their role in the surveillance. Take action now and help stop the illegal spying.

In January 2006, EFF filed suit against AT&T for violating its customers' privacy and helping the NSA spy on millions of Americans' telephone and Internet communications. Recently, Congress finally made some strides towards checking the president's power, with the Senate Judiciary Committee issuing subpoenas to the Bush Administration for critical information about the surveillance program last month.

But now the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees are in negotiations with the Administration about legislation that could shelter the telcos and threaten cases like ours. This article in The Hill suggests that a bill may start to move forward soon.

Telecommunications carriers' adherence to the law is the biggest practical check that we have against illegal government surveillance, and EFF strongly opposes any legislation that would deprive Americans of the remedies to which they are entitled.

posted by Fergie @ 7/18/2007 01:45:00 PM