AT&T filed suit today against 25 data brokers for allegedly getting a hold of calling records on 2,500 of its subscribers by pretending to be a customer or an AT&T employee.
A recent Congressional investigation found that data brokers have sold such information to law enforcement agencies, including the FBI.
AT&T's complaint alleges, in sealed documents filed in the court, that the data brokers are stealing their business, since it's their job to hand over your phone calling records to the government.
"This affects only a tiny fraction of our customers," AT&T Chief Privacy Officer Priscilla Hill-Ardoin said in a statement. "But we will pursue this on behalf of our customers to the end."
She then added that AT&T customers expect that all their communication records be data-mined and warehoused in strictest openness with the government, and that willy-nilly intrusions such these erode their confidence that only the government is above the law.
A spokesman for DIYNSA, a private investigative firm, refused to answer questions from this reporter but after an intense 10-minute phone interrogation about why they did this and how they learned to get at these records, the spokesman broke down and yelped, "I learned it from watching you, Ma Bell."
Photo: Mr. Bill
