Privacy – EFF Sues AT&T for Turning Over Database to NSA

As has been widely reported, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to gain access to telephone records of U.S. citizens. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, has filed suit against AT&T alleging that it cooperated with the NSA and provided access to a large database containing certain telephone records. The suit is based on Federal privacy statutes and the California unfair business practices statute. EFF also makes Constitutional arguments. At base, the suit alleges that AT&T disclosed the records when it should have known that a warrant was required. Basically, EFF argues that AT&T is cooperating with the NSA, when it should have requested a warrant. The aspect of the suit based on California law argues that individuals doing business with AT&T expected their records to be kept private, and cooperating with the NSA was a breach of this expectation. This suit has two lessons for providers of Internet infrastructure services: first that simply cooperating with law enforcement officials, without receiving some type of protection from them is risky. Second, your contracts with customers should always disclose that you will cooperate with law enforcement, and may disclose information a customer considers private. EFF press release Complaint