New York comptroller questions AT&T surveillance report plan

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

New York comptroller questions AT&T surveillance report plan

BY ROSS KERBER
BOSTON Wed Jan 8, 2014 5:36pm EST

(Reuters) - A plan by AT&T Inc to explain how it shares some customer information with government agencies may not be enough to restore public trust, an attorney for New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told securities regulators in a letter provided to Reuters on Wednesday.

The attorney's letter dated January 6 keeps alive a surveillance debate the telecommunications giant had aimed to settle in December - part of a growing national discussion of privacy rights fueled by the revelations of former government security contractor Edward Snowden.

Under pressure from shareholder activists AT&T promised last month to publish a semi-annual rundown of things like how many law-enforcement agency requests it gets in criminal cases.

But DiNapoli's office is worried the company's report could exclude pertinent details, for instance its sharing of customer calling records or requests for information the U.S. company might receive from foreign governments on calls by religious dissidents. By leaving out such specifics, the letter from DiNapoli's attorney states, AT&T's report "would fail to address its essential objectives of restoring public trust."

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/08/us-att-surveillance-proxy-idUSBREA071KL20140108

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Sharing information with the people who the information is about...

is a sure fire way to " Restoring public trust " .