EFF sues AT&T for giving access to your data without warrants

A big announcement today from those of us at the EFF regarding the NSA illegal wiretap scandal. We have filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T because we have reason to believe they have provided the NSA and possibly other agencies with access to not only their lines but also their "Daytona" database, which contains the call and internet records of AT&T customers, and probably the customers of other carriers who outsource database services to Daytona.

AT&T, we allege, gave access to this database when it should have told the federal agents to come back with a warrant. This is the communications records of not just people phoning Al-Qaida. It's the records of millions of ordinary Americans.

Allowing access to these records without a warrant is both a violation of the law and a violation of their duties to protect the privacy of their customers. Worse, we believe AT&T may still be doing it.

We're asking the court to make AT&T stop giving the NSA or others access without proper warrants, and to exact penalties for having done so. The potential penalties are very, very large. We want to send a message to carriers and operators like AT&T that they have a duty to follow the law and protect their customers.

You can read more at our AT&T wiretap lawsuit page.

Comments

I am 57 years old, been online to some small degree or another for 5-7 years and I am wondering why it me so long to to know of you folks. Considering the powerhouse Board of Diretors one would think that your Board should be able to and should have been able to thrust your name into the forefront of the brilliance of the world's technological advancements, or at least make your group a household name like "ACLU," "Patriot Act," "Move On" or "Fox News?" Is it a matter of money, or time and space or perhaps all of the above in some intricate pattern that our most advanced brains and computers do not yet understand.

But be that as it may, it is comforting for the moment to see that there other militias out there that need to join and be joined to make us all one big happy internet family of Liberty seeking orderly persons no matter where our liberal, open, independent spirits and rational thoughts deliver us. Since there is no defeating the inevitability of a NWO in some form or fashion as we humans constantly evolve through time and space. The next Order evolving as monarchies crumbled into the sands of massive democracies to meld into socialist societies in the forms of nation states that gave birth to the American democratic republic of world dominance in the name of the one, the only Capitalist Empire that devours ancient civilizations with the pump of the oil well, we must seriously consider with or without tongue in check, just what will the next evolutionary turn reveal? What adventures will mankind find waiting as we evolve into the extended Hayekian Order? There is no doubt that next order has begun to crystalize. As the seeds of knowledge are forever spread by this new medium of cyberspace, we must keep our political servants from defining the natural rules of cyberworld, for there must be natural rules, and they need to be discovered, protected and not defined by political hacks no matter how well meaning they may foolishly try to help protect our Happiness as a group of cyberjunkies. Yes, let us play naturally inside the world of Cyberspace surfing freely and openly in the safety of the knowledge that you are there, the watchdogs of our brave new world.

I don't think the EFF have been hiding. The problem is, that as an organisation they just don't have enough money from donations to be able to pay staff to work full-time on this, like so many other "lobbyist" companies that make millions every year to bride Senators and "CongressCritters".

I could donate about 50p. Shell donates £50,000. Shell aren't going to support the EFF any time soon without some real good spin, and so we see the problem...

I tacitly support the EFF, even though I'm not even an American. I suggest you do at least that, if not more.

are you aware that your websites are blocked? I try repeatedly to reach news articles and even your website for info regarding suit and I receive weird messages and blank pages amounting to what appears to be a deliberate blocking or interception. In short I can not access info on the suit.

are you aware that your websites are blocked? I try repeatedly to reach news articles and even your website for info regarding suit and I receive weird messages and blank pages amounting to what appears to be a deliberate blocking or interception. In short I can not access info on the suit.

While the EFF did just update its web site software, it is working fine for me. If you have a particular URL, let me know, or tell me what ISP you are on if you think it's blocking.

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