On snooping disclosures, AT&T wants to remain silent
AT&T wants to silence a shareholder proposal that it disclose the government requests it receives for customer information, rejecting a step that Google, Microsoft and other Internet companies have already taken.
The proposal calls on AT&T to publish semi-annual reports about the information requests it receives from U.S. and foreign governments. Under the plan, the reports would be subject to existing laws and omit proprietary information. The language was submitted by the New York State Common Retirement Fund and other AT&T shareholders after recent revelations about telecommunications and Internet snooping by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other U.S. agencies.
On Thursday, AT&T asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to agree that the company can leave the shareholder proposal off its proxy statement, which shareholders will vote on at its 2014 annual meeting. The request came in a letter to the SEC, which The New York Times reported on Friday.
