AT&T is really hoping you’ll ignore this post. Just like they’ve been ignoring emails from their customers about how the company is selling away their privacy.
For a hefty fee, AT&T is contracting out its employees to U.S. law enforcement agencies. Upon the agencies’ request, they will run analysis on AT&T’s massive database, which holds 30 years’ worth of call records from AT&T’s customers, and anyone who has received a call from someone with an AT&T account. That means, without any warrant or court order, your private information can be sucked up into some report and handed over to government agents.
Without transparency from AT&T about how it is handling our data, or judicial oversight to ensure law enforcement is respecting our rights, this program puts everyone at risk — especially communities of color, religious minorities, and others who are vulnerable to discrimination.
That’s why we’re going to make sure everyone knows about AT&T’s secretive deal with law enforcement — by putting it up on a billboard outside their D.C. office. Are you in?
Just this week we found out the U.S. government is trying to force a hosting service to hand over the IP addresses of over a million people that visited a website used to coordinate protests around the Trump inauguration. In this climate, the risks of the mass data disclosure that AT&T is volunteering are even more pronounced.
These billboards are in one of the most visible spots in D.C. — and they are hanging on the front of one of AT&T’s flagship stores. With your help, AT&T will be forced to confront our message. So will the federal law enforcement agencies taking advantage of this privacy-abusing program, the lawmakers who have failed to stop these deals from happening, and innocent individuals who have no idea AT&T is handing over information about them to police.
We have to show companies like AT&T they can’t exploit our data this way, especially not in the dark. Will you help make this happen?
Standing strong for our rights,
Nathan, Carolyn, and the Access Now Team