Last week I diaried on the The
Electronic Freedom Frontiers claims that AT&T had built facilities for the NSA and routed all their data and voice traffic through them.
AT&T has not disputed the claims, instead they have asked that the documents not be admitted because they contain "highly sensitive information that, if disclosed, could result in harm to AT&T and to its customers", for example, all their customers with privacy concerns would close their accounts.
Other reasons AT&T give for withdrawing the documents are
"Without these documents, plaintiffs' motion rests on little more than newspaper clippings."
"[T]he documents are confidential and proprietary. Disclosure of them would cause AT&T great harm and potentially jeopardize AT&T's network, making it vulnerable to hackers and worse."
"AT&T considers the information in the Confidential Documents highly confidential and proprietary, and such information has value generally unknown to the public or AT&T's competitors."
"Exposure to the threats that would arise from disclosure of the Confidential Documents would harm AT&T and its customers, which include businesses, federal, state and local government, and private individuals."
At no time has AT&T made any claim that the contents of the documents are untrue.
AT&T asked for a hearing on Thursday to determine the fate of the documents. The EFF have challenged the short period of time and claimed that AT&T are not following proper procedure.