Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Phone monitoring raises privacy concerns
By Amy Brennan
The Daily Universe (BYU)
05/17/2006

(U-WIRE) PROVO, Utah — Utahns may think twice before they reach to dial their phones. An article published May 11, 2006 by USA Today revealed a secret government program that collected billions of phone call records to create a database.

As part of the program AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth provided the National Security Agency with customer phone call records, including landline and cellular records, to allow creation of a database to track potential terrorist activity, USA Today reported. Qwest, Utah's largest landline provider, refused to comply with the government program, citing privacy concerns.

This new controversy comes on the heels of former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden's nomination to the post of CIA director. Hayden, nominated by President Bush, ran the NSA for six years, including time before and after Sept. 11, 2001.

The NSA phone record program differs from the domestic wiretapping program reported by the New York Times in December because call content is not monitored. In addition, customer names, addresses and personal information were reportedly not released with the call data. However, an Internet search of phone numbers can easily provide this data.

Revelations about the phone database has also triggered debate in Utah. Utah's congressional delegation had mixed opinions about the issue.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a member of the Intelligence Subcommittee, did not confirm or deny the accuracy of the USA Today article, but agreed with a statement made by Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who said, "I remain convinced that the program authorized by the president is lawful and absolutely necessary to protect this Nation from future attacks."

In a press release, Rep. Chris Cannon said it was important to keep the country safe, "but having a government agency maintaining a database detailing our phone calls rightly causes concern."

Others expressed concern over whether the program violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures."

Dani Eyer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, said the program violated the Fourth Amendment.

"Mass surveillance threatens freedom before it threatens any individual terrorist," Eyer said. "The U.S. should create some over-arching privacy laws that cover certain kinds of sensitive data," she said.

Civil rights attorney Brian Barnard called the NSA program "absolutely frightening."

"It is a violation of federal law and it shows a total disregard for constitutional rights and the integrity of citizens," he said. "In order to get that kind of information, normally there has to be a subpoena."

However, A BYU faculty member strongly disagreed.

Eric Schulzke, a BYU assistant professor of political science, said the threat of terrorism is very real.

"If the government was not collecting this information, I think it would be criminally irresponsible of them," Schulzke said. "It is something of a national disaster that [the program] has been illegally exposed."

The three companies that participated in the government program face public backlash. The ACLU provided Web visitors with an online petition to send to the companies.

"By helping the government track the calls and communications of millions of ordinary Americans, you are violating not only the law but the trust of the American consumer," the petition stated.

However, in a written statement issued May 12, Verizon said it could not comment on whether or not the company had ties to the highly classified government program.

"Verizon will provide customer information to a government agency only where authorized by law for appropriately-defined and focused purposes," the statement said.

Qwest, the only company that refused participation, saw public support increase. A Web site, www.thankyouqwest.org, encouraged the public to send an e-mail to Qwest's Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer David J. Heller.

"The stance taken by the telecom Qwest in resisting the Bush Administration's covert program to ensnare every single American in a vast web of telephone surveillance deserves our thanks," the Web site stated.

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