AT&T vs EFF

Amidst all the posturing by the government regarding domestic surveillance (we’re not really watching you, just the terrorists), a Federal judge in San Francisco has quite progressively ruled that a case brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) would proceed despite the government’s request to toss key documents in the case on grounds of “national security.”

"We're very pleased that the court refused AT&T's unreasonable demand that this critical evidence be returned to AT&T and struck from the record. And, although the evidence itself will stay under seal, the court has asked AT&T to work with us in providing public versions of our legal papers," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Taken together with the court's refusal to close the courtroom as AT&T had requested, we think today was a real victory for the public's right to know, and for our ability to litigate this case."

According to the EFF suit, since as far back as 2003 (in the bad old days of Total Information Awareness), AT&T has been illegally turning over phone-record data to the National Security Agency and has wired its internet backbone to secret NSA surveillance equipment. A whistleblower (hero) has turned over documents showing the AT&T tapped 16 fiber-optic cables connecting the company's WorldNet internet backbone to other internet service providers, in order to funnel data to the NSA data mining operation.

This is not just data traffic either; Voice-Over-IP (like that fancy internet phone you got from Time Warner) can be monitored as well.

AT&T claims they are innocent bystanders in this, that they were just trying to fulfill it’s national security obligations and couldn’t be held responsible for the NSA installing Secret switching rooms in it’s facilities. (Right, let’s put that one up there with Prince playing ACL fest).

Despite this small victory against the Orwellian state, it seems pretty likely that the case will be eventually dismissed when it gets bumped to the U.S. Circuit court of Appeals, particularly if the mind-bogglingly-scary State Secrets Privilege is invoked. However, it’s good to see outfits like EFF (who has a local chapter) doing there level best to take these aging and decrepit telephone companies to task for using the Bill of Rights a sanitary tissue.