I did it to see what they would say. I did not expect anyone to call me. I did not expect anything but a canned response. My email was brief:
If I find out that you provided our phone records
of either our landline residential or our
Cingular wireless phones to the NSA, I will be looking
for a class action lawsuit to join,not to mention
cancelling all of our services.
And their response wasn't brief by any stretch of the imagination. But what did they actually tell me? Notta damn thing:
Thank you for your recent email.
We understand your concern and want to stress
that we vigorously protect our customers' privacy.
There has been a lot of speculation in the news
media. The fact is, AT&T does not allow
wiretapping without a court order nor has it otherwise
given customer information to law enforcement
authorities or government agencies without legal
authorization.
We have an obligation to assist law enforcement
and other government agencies responsible for
protecting the public welfare, whether it be an
individual or the security interests of the entire
nation.
We prize the trust our customers place in us. If
and when AT&T is asked by government agencies for
help, we do so strictly within the law and under
the most stringent conditions.
Beyond that, we can't comment on matters of
national security. This is a national security issue
and needs to be addressed on a national level.
We do appreciate hearing from you and we value
your business.
Thank you for choosing the new AT&T - the
culmination of AT&T's passion to invent and SBC's drive
to deliver. We appreciate your business and
continued loyalty. Check out the new AT&T at
www.att.com.
For additional information, click on the links
below, or cut and paste the links into your browser
(see safety note below):
The rest was just a large commercial..bastards..so I responded with this:
I would like to understand how providing my telephone records to the
NSA has become an issue of National Security,over the rights of the
individual to due process. Please explain how two elderly,disabled
people..one of whom voted Bush into office are National Security risks.
Did you receive a warrant requesting this information? Did you receive
a letter perhaps outlining how we are suspected of engaging in
terrorist activities? The answer to these questions is NO, you didn't
get anything, you summarily handed them over without so much as due
process on behalf of your customer..ME. When my contract period is
over, I will be changing cell phone carriers. Thanks for protecting me
and my rights.Qwest was the ONLY Telco that said no and the fed's just
walked away. Too bad I no longer live in their service area, I have the
utmost respect for them now. As for you, a giant conglomerate that only
values the almightly dollar..does the word Facism ring a bell? It
should..your company allowed this to happen without so much as a
question regarding the legality of it.
