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Investors: AT&T and Verizon must say how much customer data goes to NSA
Source: The Guardian
Investors: AT&T and Verizon must say how much customer data goes to NSA
Juliette Garside, telecoms correspondent
The Guardian, Thursday 21 November 2013 17.56 GMT
Big investors in America's two largest mobile phone companies have demanded they disclose how much customer data they hand over to the US and foreign governments. Documents from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show AT&T and Verizon have installed equipment to copy, scan and filter large amounts of the traffic that passes through their networks.
AT&T and Verizon Communications, which owns Verizon Wireless, will face votes at their annual shareholder meetings following formal requests from one of New York's biggest public sector pension funds and a large private investment firm. The $161bn New York State Common Retirement Fund, which manages the pensions of more than 1 million state workers, and Trillium Asset Management, a Boston-based investment management firm with $1.3bn under management, have lodged demands with both networks to publish the number of requests they receive for customer information every six months.
The investors said customers could switch to other networks if they think their privacy has been compromised.
AT&T has also been warned that its willingness to co-operate with state-sponsored surveillance could hamper its ambitions to expand its business into Europe. The company is reported to be considering a bid for Vodafone, the British-based mobile network with outposts across Europe, Africa and Asia.
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Juliette Garside, telecoms correspondent
The Guardian, Thursday 21 November 2013 17.56 GMT
Big investors in America's two largest mobile phone companies have demanded they disclose how much customer data they hand over to the US and foreign governments. Documents from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show AT&T and Verizon have installed equipment to copy, scan and filter large amounts of the traffic that passes through their networks.
AT&T and Verizon Communications, which owns Verizon Wireless, will face votes at their annual shareholder meetings following formal requests from one of New York's biggest public sector pension funds and a large private investment firm. The $161bn New York State Common Retirement Fund, which manages the pensions of more than 1 million state workers, and Trillium Asset Management, a Boston-based investment management firm with $1.3bn under management, have lodged demands with both networks to publish the number of requests they receive for customer information every six months.
The investors said customers could switch to other networks if they think their privacy has been compromised.
AT&T has also been warned that its willingness to co-operate with state-sponsored surveillance could hamper its ambitions to expand its business into Europe. The company is reported to be considering a bid for Vodafone, the British-based mobile network with outposts across Europe, Africa and Asia.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/21/investors-att-verizon-customer-data-nsa
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