The
Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing AT&T for secretly working with the National Security Agency to spy on Americans:
"The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."
Traditionally, a wiretap was issued to listen to a person's communications on a specific phone line with permission from a court. Things became more complicated when people started using many phones, email, Treos, and Blackberries. The playing field has changed, and so have the laws allowing for tracking the communications of suspected criminals.
However, if the EFF's allegations are true,
it sounds like the NSA is actually spying on all Americans all the time using a filtering system to identify suspicious communications:
"The NSA program came to light in December, when the New York Times reported that the President had authorized the agency to intercept telephone and Internet communications inside the United States without the authorization of any court. Over the ensuing weeks, it became clear that the NSA program has been intercepting and analyzing millions of Americans' communications, with the help of the country's largest phone and Internet companies, including AT&T."
That would explain why the Bush administration didn't go to the FISA court to receive approval before using this technologically advanced spying technique. They're not spying on specific individuals. They're technically spying on all of us all the time and the court is not designed to approve such a tactic.
Is this a good use of technology? Crime fighting methods to need to evolve with technology?
Is this an abuse of technology? Just because you CAN do something, should you? Or should you at least ask for permission first?
What role should private companies like AT&T play in spying? Who should they be accountable to? Shareholders? Customers? The government?
1. Posted by: Ed Kohler on April 9, 2006 9:07 PM:
Here is a link to a statement from AT&T's Wiretap Whistleblower, Mark Klein.
An excerpt:
"Based on my understanding of the connections and equipment at issue, it appears the NSA is capable of conducting what amounts to vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the internet -- whether that be peoples' e-mail, web surfing or any other data."