Telcos on Privacy Hot Seat

Red Herring is reporting this week:

Michigan Representative John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent the letter to 20 companies, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Cingular, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and EarthLink.

The letter dated Saturday asked the companies’ leadership whether they have “allowed the federal government to eavesdrop on customer communications” through their facilities or whether or not they have turned over customer records “when not compelled to do so by law.”

The letter sent on the House Judiciary Committee stationery asks the leaders of the communications firms if access was indeed granted, what content was monitored, and how many customers were monitored.

The letter asks if the customers were notified of the surveillance and whether or not the government continues to monitor their customers’ communications.

“One wonders whether the government showed up with a court order or an opinion letter from the attorney general,” said Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. “The Bells should at the very least inquire about the law that governs their situation. I hope a conversation ensued after the government made the request.”

One has to think that if taken seriously this privacy and domestic spying investigation is going to get much larger and could (should) be a major thorn in the side of the President, which could have ramifications in the mid-term elections in November. I have written a letter to my Senators (Dodd/Lieberman) and Representative (Shays), specifically asking their opinion on this subject, what they are planning on doing about it, and expressing my concern that executive branch of government is overstepping its constitutional rights. I request you do the same. If we can get enough people to contact their representatives in Washington, maybe we can find out why the President believes himself to be above the law.