Hepting vs. AT&T
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Hepting vs. AT&T is a United States class action lawsuit filed in January 2006 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) against the telecom company AT&T, in which the EFF alleges that AT&T permitted and assisted the US Government to unlawfully monitor the internet communications of a large part of the USA, including AT&T customers and businesses and third parties whose communications were routed through AT&T's network, as well as Voice over IP telephone calls routed via the internet.
The case is separate from, but of a similar nature to, the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, in which the US government bypassed the courts to monitor US phone calls without a warrant, and it does not include the US Government as a party.
The US government indicated in an April 28 [Statement of Interest] in the case that it intends to invoke the State Secrets Privilege in a bid to dismiss the action.
Background and allegation
It is alleged in the lawsuit that in 2002 - 2003, AT&T permitted and assisted the National Security Agency (or NSA, a department of the US government) to install a system in its San Francisco switching center, which was capable of monitoring billions of bits of internet traffic a second, including the playback of telephone calls routed on the internet, and thus in effect spying upon the entirety of the communication of many or all US citizens and businesses who use the internet.
A formet AT&T engineer, Mark Klein, attested that a supercomputer built by Narus was installed for the purpose, and that similar systems were also installed in at least Seattle, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego. Wired News [states] Klein said he came forward "because he does not believe that the Bush administration is being truthful about the extent of its extrajudicial monitoring of Americans' communications":
- "Despite what we are hearing, and considering the public track record of this administration, I simply do not believe their claims that the NSA's spying program is really limited to foreign communications or is otherwise consistent with the NSA's charter or with FISA [...] And unlike the controversy over targeted wiretaps of individuals' phone calls, this potential spying appears to be applied wholesale to all sorts of internet communications of countless citizens."
- "Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible [...] They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to."
AT&T objected to the filing of the documents supporting the case on the grounds they were trade secrets or might compromise the security of its network. The EFF speculated that the US government will use the State Secrets Privilege to bar the entire lawsuit from being heard, but adds that: "If state secrecy can prevent us from preserving the rights of millions upon millions of people, then there is a profound problem with the law."
That speculation has indeed proven accurate; the government indicated in an April 28 [Statement of Interest] in the case that it intends to invoke the State Secrets Privilege in a bid to dismiss the action.
See also
- Telephone tapping
- Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
- Lawful interception
- Mass surveillance
- Privacy
- SIGINT (Signals Intelligence)
- Traffic analysis
External links
- The story, from Wired News
- :[AT&T Sued Over NSA Eavesdropping, Jan 31 2006]
- :[Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room, Apr 07 2006]
- :[AT&T Seeks to Hide Spy Docs, Apr 12 2006]
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