Verizon is target in $1 billion suit for help to NSA

Class action - A Beaverton man says the phone provider violated federal consumer protections

Saturday, May 13, 2006

ANNE SAKER The Oregonian

A Beaverton man filed a $1 billion federal class-action lawsuit Friday against Verizon Northwest Inc., saying telephone service provider violated his privacy by handing over his phone records to the National Security Agency.

Darryl Hines said in court papers that the phone company gave his information to the spy agency without previously consulting its customers, previously obtaining permission or even advising its customers after the fact.

Hines, through his Portland lawyer, Christopher Slater, filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Portland. He asked for the case to be certified as a class action to cover the estimated 1 million Verizon customers in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.

Hines' lawsuit says Verizon violated the consumer privacy protections in the federal Telecommunications Act. The lawsuit asks that Verizon be punished with statutory damages of $1,000 for each violation of the Telecommunications Act, plus $1 billion in punitive damages.

The suit was filed a day after USA Today revealed that after the Sept. 11 attacks, the NSA asked Verizon Communications Inc., BellSouth Corp., AT&T Corp. and Qwest Communications International Inc. for millions of telephone records.

Qwest, which serves Portland and much of the rest of Oregon, refused. But the other phone companies handed over the records without obtaining customers' permission or notifying them afterward, as required by federal law, the newspaper said.

Joe Nacchio, the former Qwest chief executive under indictment on an unrelated matter, told The Oregonian on Friday that he rebuffed the NSA because he believed its warrantless requests for customer information violated federal telecommunications laws.

Verizon, which provides phone service in Washington County and other parts of Oregon, cooperated with the NSA, according to USA Today.

A Verizon spokesman in California, Jonathan Davies, said Friday he could not comment on litigation. However, he released a statement from Verizon's corporate headquarters in New York that declined to comment on its dealings with the NSA. The statement said Verizon strives to protect customers' privacy.

"Verizon does not and will not provide any government agency unfettered access to our customer records or provide information to the government under circumstances that would allow a fishing expedition," the statement says.

A similar suit seeking $4 billion in damages from Verizon was filed Friday in New York.

Mike Rogoway of The Oregonian staff contributed to this report.