Did AT&T Violate All Our Privacies?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a major lawsuit against the largest telecommunications carrier in the U.S....namely AT&T. The EFF is alleging that AT&T has purposely diverted customer traffic to the National Security Agency for years as a means of aiding the NSA's covert surveillance program that was revealed last December. They also claim they claim to have the documents to prove it.

According to EFF, they have a sworn statement from a retired AT&T telecommunications technician and several internal AT&T documents that show the company gave the government unfettered access to its more than 300 terabyte "Daytona" database of caller information, one of the largest databases in the world.

"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF staff attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."

These documents, among others, at first worried the government (which is not a party to the lawsuit), which is concerned about matters of national security being discussed in open court. The Department of Justice has looked over the materials, though, and just announced that it has no objection to the EFF case so long as the documents and proceedings are kept under seal. That seems to lend a fair amount credence to the EFF case.

On average day AT&T carries some 300 million voice calls as well as over 4,000 terabytes of data, approximately 200 times the amount of data contained in all the books in the Library of Congress. The EFF says they chose to sue AT&T because they are the largest and if they are successful with this case, it would probably convince other firms to stop aiding the NSA, if for no other reason than to avoid class-action lawsuits and massive fines.

The NSA and the Bush Administration may have crossed the line of demarcation as spelled out in the 1978 law that protects us from unfettered wire tapping. And while we all want to help in rooting out terrorist's that threaten our country, there needs to be some sort of checks and balances put in place regarding wire tapping and our right to privacy. After all, our constitution is designed with many checks and balances to make sure no one person or entity can take total control of our government and our lives. And, in the last few decades, it is the concept of "National Security" that was used as the excuse to violate our basic rights.