A class-action lawsuit has been filed against AT&T, where the company is accused of violating federal laws with warrantless wiretapping of American citizens' phone and internet usage. It is alleged that the company collaborated with the US government in doing so. Filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in federal court in San Francisco, the suit contends that AT&T secretly gave the National Security Agency access to information which included the contents of its subscribers' communications and detailed transaction records (such as dialled numbers.)
"Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible," says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston. "They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to."