It is time to hold these telecommunication giants liable for their actions in disclosing phone records to the government.

The only privacy policy I could find for the companies listed in the USA Today article is that of Verizon (viewable here), and it appears they may have a problem:

Disclosure of Information Outside Verizon

 As a rule, Verizon will notify you and give you the opportunity to “opt out” when we disclose telephone customer information outside of Verizon. In fact, we generally keep our records of the services you buy and the calls you make private, and will not ordinarily disclose this information to outside parties without your permission. However, we do release customer information without involving you if disclosure is required by law or to protect the safety of customers, employees or property. This is further explained below.

If they are disclosing this in accordance with federal law then exactly what is that law? They do have another interesting thing right below this which addresses something else from federal law:

The FCC refers to your telephone account information as Customer Proprietary Network Information or CPNI. Under Federal Law, you have the right to, and we have the duty to protect, the confidentiality of your telecommunications service information. This information includes the type, technical arrangement, quantity, destination, and amount of use of telecommunications services and related billing for these services.

So if they are releasing information based upon federal law then does this law supersede the federal law as outlined above?

Perhaps they are operating under this part of their privacy policy:

Verizon must disclose information, as necessary, to comply with court orders or subpoenas. Verizon also will share information to protect its rights or property and to protect users of its services and other carriers from fraudulent, abusive or unlawful use of services.

So was their a court order or subpoena involved in the disclosure of information? If so what judge made the ruling in the case and in what court?

It would seem as though if Verizon can not give adequate answers to these questions that they are violating their own privacy policy and opening themselves up to civil action by their customers.

If you are a customer of BellSouth or AT&T then you should call them immediately and ask for their privacy policy. John has some other questions up that should be asked and there you can find out how to contact your company on this Kos Diary by Eightball0. This is  OUR rights and privacy we are talking about and the defense of them starts with our own actions.