From a News
article in eWeek
AT&T is being sued in federal court for allegedly violating the Constitutional rights of Americans by enabling the National Security Agency to spy on citizens without court authorization.
In a class action suit filed Jan. 31, the Electronic Frontier Foundation accused AT&T of playing an instrumental role in "a secret and illegal government program to intercept and analyze vast quantities of Americans' telephone and Internet communications."
The EFF charged that the carrier violated customers' First Amendment right to free speech and Fourth Amendment right to privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and also broke several wiretap and telecommunications laws.
Frankly I think it a good step in the right direction. If the companies that gather all this information are not resposible, at least in part, for protecting the information from illegal snooping then they should not be allowed to collect it. How would we be expected to react if, when companies were asked for lists of their Catholic clients, or Muslim customers, or Italian members, they blithely turned them over to government agency without any warrant or judicial authorization? Outrageous right? Well what is different about 'all your customers who call overseas' or 'all you customers who get calls from the Middle East'? "I gave them the information beause some 'men in black' said I should" is simply not a defensible position,
I certainly hope this lawsuit works and establishes a liability on the part of the data holders to protect it from 'unwarranted' search and seizure.
Please provide details below to help Gather review this content. If it is found to be inappropriate and in violation of the
Gather Terms of Service, action will be taken.
You have successfully submitted a report for this post.
rate
email
print
link to this page
