NSA WIRETAPPING
Unwarranted intrusion

From the Houston Chronicle editorial board:

Equally troubling is USA Today's reporting that telecommunications giants Verizon, AT&T and BellSouth willingly turned over data on billions of private calls within the United States in exchange for contracts with NSA. These providers trampled on their customers' rights in a rush to the government trough. Federal intelligence agencies apparently have continuously updated compilations of the calling patterns and personal contacts of millions of citizens who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. While the companies did not include names and addresses in the data provided, such information can be easily obtained by cross-referencing phone numbers with other data bases.

A former NSA chief and nominee to be CIA director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, justifies the surveillance as a legal measure to combat terrorism. But the information will also be available to federal agencies with no oversight from the courts. If White House officials were willing to leak the name of a covert CIA operative in order to discredit her husband, how secure will such data be in the hands of a host of bureaucrats and private contractors? Imagine the temptation for politicians to access a complete roadmap of opponents' business and personal contacts.

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Quite right, this is the major reason such laws exist: politicians, always trying to maintain and expand their power, cannot be trusted to have access to such personal information; the incentive to abuse it is built into the system, which is why it is illegal to get it without a damned good reason. And speaking of illegal, the government isn't the only entity in trouble here. The telecom companies who cooperated were very likely violating the law themselves.

From Think Progress courtesy of This is not a compliment:

Telcos Could Be Liable For Tens of Billions of
Dollars For Illegally Turning Over Phone Records

The penalty for violating the Stored Communications Act is $1000 per individual violation. Section 2707 of the Stored Communications Act gives a private right of action to any telephone customer “aggrieved by any violation.” If the phone company acted with a “knowing or intentional state of mind,” then the customer wins actual harm, attorney’s fees, and “in no case shall a person entitled to recover receive less than the sum of $1,000.”

And

In other words, for every 1 million Americans whose records were turned over to NSA, the telcos could be liable for $1 billion in penalties, plus attorneys fees. You do the math.

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There's already a class action suit against Verizon, and I expect more to follow. It is interesting to note that the law says a person whose records have been violated in such a way shall not "receive less than the sum of $1,000." That is, it could be way more. On the other hand, if any of these suits should win, they stand to bankrupt each of these companies, so it's not likely that the penalty is actually going to exceed that single grand. But, hey, a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks. BellSouth is my phone company. How can I get in on some of this action?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$