Daily News On Liberty & Technology

CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUP SUES WHITACRE'S AT&T

The EFF's lawsuit seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and came to light in December last year. It also seeks billions of dollars in damages. "Our main goal is to stop this invasion of privacy, prevent it from occurring again and make sure AT&T and all the other carriers understand there are going to be legal and economic consequences when they fail to follow the law," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff attorney in a written release.

Read the entire story at Forbes.Com: www.forbes.com


PRIVACY GROUP SUES AT&T OVER ALLEGED SURVEILLANCE

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A civil liberties group sued AT&T Inc. on Tuesday for its alleged role in helping the National Security Agency spy on the phone calls and other communications of U.S. citizens without warrants.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, seeks to stop the surveillance program that started shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It also seeks billions of dollars in damages.

The EFF claims the San Antonio-based telecommunications company not only provided direct access to its network that carries voice and data but also to its massive databases of stored telephone and Internet records that are updated constantly.

Read the Entire story at Silicon Valley: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/13760599.htm


EFF SUES AT&T TO STOP ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T Tuesday, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.

Read the EFF version of the story: http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/


MICROSOFT CLARIFIES POLICY ON CENSORING BLOGS

Under fire after censoring a Chinese blogger, Microsoft on Tuesday announced a new policy for dealing with government requests to block content that violates local laws.

Microsoft's new MSN Spaces policy states that the company will remove content only when it "receives a legally binding notice from the government indicating that the material violates local laws" or when the content violates MSN contract terms. When it does take down content, it will only be done in the country issuing the order, and the company said it will also "ensure that users know why that content was blocked."

Read more at CNET News: http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6033343.html


HOUSE: INTERNET COMPANIES GIVE IN TO CHINA

Lawmakers on Wednesday accused U.S.-based Internet companies of giving in to pressure from China and helping to censor Web users in violation of American principles of free speech.
They also criticized the four companies Microsoft Corp., Yahoo! Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc. for failing to attend a congressional briefing that was staged to bring to light how Internet companies do business in China.

How ironic that the US government criticizes foreign governments for doing exactly what the current administration is doing.

Read the entire story at ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1567805