August 29, 2007
Don’t Let the Bells
Off-The-Hook
For
Violating Our Civil
Liberties
The
telecommunications industry is lobbying for legislation that would give
companies that illegally provided confidential consumer telephone content and
call information to the National Security Agency complete amnesty for all their
illegal behavior over the last five years. They seek immunity for their
conduct even before it is fully disclosed to the public, and before their
customers learn what was done with their personal information. The immunity
they seek is:
-
Bad for
Consumers. Americans have
had their phone calls and records released to the government – and the companies
that conspired with the government to turn over this confidential information to
the NSA want get away with breaking the law with no
consequences.
- Bad for
Precedent. If Congress
swoops in now to stop the telecoms from being held accountable for their
actions, telecoms will have no reason to follow the law in the
future.
- Bad for
Accountability. The
administration has made it abundantly clear that it will not cooperate with
congressional investigations, and will fight every court battle tooth and nail
to make sure the facts never come to light. If Congress cannot leverage
immunity on an individual basis, and in exchange for specific information,
consumers will never learn what their phone companies did with consumer phone
calls and records. The telecom industry will have no incentive to come
clean if it has already gotten a free pass for its illegal activities.
- Bad for States’
Rights. Consumers
across the country have asserted their rights in court, before public utility
commissions and through their attorney generals. This legislation would
intercede in state actions, and kill the efforts of local officials to enforce
their own privacy laws that in some cases are more protective than federal laws.
