What Legal Exposure Does A Company Face From Data Mining? ... giving their customer information to the federal government place them in legal jeopardy

The Left Coaster: What Legal Exposure Does A Company Face From Data Mining?: "Saturday :: Dec 24, 2005

When I read the NYT story late last night that revealed the NSA has been gathering data on each of us from our emails and telephone calls for the last four years, I wasn’t surprised. The recent revelations of NSA warrant less wiretapping and other eavesdropping, absent probable cause or any due process, removed any doubt for me that the Bush Administration has established a police state of sorts without having to justify it or face any consequences from the American public. We can deal with the Bush Administration politically on this in 2006 and make them sweat about whether what they have done supposedly in the name of national security in a now terror threat alert-free world since November 2004 is really about fighting terrorism, or is really about something sinister.

But what about the companies themselves? Quite simply, in the pages and pages of privacy practices that your phone, email, and cell phone company have sent you over the last several years, all in an effort to convince you that your data will not be given out to anyone, does it mention anywhere that the company reserves the right to share data files on you with the federal government without a court order, a legal requirement to do so, due process, or probable cause? Mine don't.

The NYT piece states that the companies that provide us our everyday telephone, cell phone, and email services have been gathering information on us and giving it to the government in large files that don’t distinguish between everyday people and those who are potential threats to the country. It is the ultimate guilt-by-association scenario. ...
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There is a political avenue to follow for dealing with the Bush Administration here. Aside from the Bush Administration however, what about the corporations themselves? Doesn’t the revelation that these corporations have been giving their customer information to the federal government place them in legal jeopardy, in the absence of a federal law that requires them to gather these files and turn them over to the feds? Remember, they have been accumulating this data and giving it to the feds; the NYT story makes no mention of court orders or laws requiring them to do this. So they have been voluntarily doing this as a way of saying "we’re a good corporate citizen, and oh by the way, thanks for approving our recent merger/takeover; here’s our latest campaign contribution." ...