February 1, 2006 | Sex & Society

AT&T sued in Net spying case

Early this year, news broke that the U.S. government has been eavesdropping on American phone calls. Of course, to do so, it would need unprecedented cooperation from complicit telecoms. So argues the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T.

EFF, a civil liberties group, claims that AT&T violated federal law by cooperating with secret government wiretapping of American citizens' phone conversations and Internet usage. According to Wired News, its complaint alleges that the company gave the National Security Agency (NSA) access to two enormous databases that contain the content of its subscribers' communications as well as their private transaction data, including the phone numbers that they dial and the websites that they visit.

The access that AT&T gave the federal government to its records violates the First and Fourth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, according to EFF, not to mention federal wiretapping statutes, telecommunications laws and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The suit relies upon reports from the Los Angeles Times and seeks damages of up to $22,000, plus punitive fines, for each of AT&T's millions of customers.

"Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible," EFF attorney Kevin Bankston told Wired News. "They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T."

What's that, George? No terrorists? Just lots of hot phone sex and porn surfing? It's all beginning to make sense now ...

• AT&T sued over NSA eavesdropping [wired]
• EFF's class action lawsuit against AT&T [EFF]