The firestorm surrounding the NSA’s collection of calling records for millions of Americans continues to rage. The latest fallout is a class action lawsuit against the government and Verizon seeking as much as $50 billion in damages.
“The Telecommunications Act of 1934 is as clear as clear can be,” plaintiff Carl Mayer said. “You can’t turn over the records of your customers and if you do so it’s $1,000 per violation. The Constitution is very clear. The Supreme Court has consistently held that the Fourth Amendment prevents unlawful searches and seizures which we believe this to be.”
But one telco that was originally said to be working with the NSA may be off the hook. BellSouth issued a statement today saying that despite news reports that it too helped the government collect millions of calling records, it did no such thing.
As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA, the Company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA.
If that’s the case, kudos to BellSouth (and Qwest, which has never been accused of participating in the massive data collection effort). As was the case with DOJ’s subpoena of search queries and search records, too many communications and Internet providers seem to roll over for government information demands — Google, it bears repeating, was not one of them. Maybe this incident, and the refusal (or at least non-participation) of giants such as BellSouth and Qwest, will stiffen the spines of companies which hold so many of our private lives in their hands.
Cynthia Brumfield at 6:20 PM|Comments(0)
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