A Federal Judge has demanded, three times now, that the Obama Administration hand over documents that highlight how major phone companies AT&T and Verizon lobbied for legal immunity for their involvement in the government's warrantless wiretap program. The government, with no real legal footing to stand on, has now tried to delay that release three times in order to keep those documents out of the ongoing Congressional discussion about domestic wiretapping. According to the EFF they're finally making headway, and some documents should be released this week:In a very clear act of non-transparency, there's still a significant number of baby bell lobbying documents the government is protecting. The Obama administration also still plans to redact the identities of any specific companies from any documents they do release -- and are not disclosing communications within the Executive Branch concerning telco lobbying.

A Federal Judge has demanded, three times now, that the Obama Administration hand over documents that highlight how major phone companies AT&T and Verizon lobbied for legal immunity for their involvement in the government's warrantless wiretap program. The government, with no real legal footing to stand on, has now tried to delay that release three times in order to keep those documents out of the ongoing Congressional discussion about domestic wiretapping.

Interestingly, Politico has obtained a leaked government e-mail that suggests that even if and when the Obama Administration releases the documents, they may continue to protect the names of the companies involved in the lobbying. A government filing from yesterday offers Uncle Sam's murky position on why: story continues..

As we mentioned last week a U.S. Judge has repeatedly demanded that Uncle Sam hand over documents highlighting how AT&T and Verizon lobbied the government for immunity from prosecution in their role in the government's warrantless wiretapping program. But the Obama administration lawyers have repeatedly tried to stall the release of the documents -- likely so they aren't released while Congress is busy discussing the government's domestic surveillance programs. For the third time the courts have denied Uncle Sam's efforts to delay the release of these documents, arguing that release is in the public interest:Needless to say (though the Judge says it anyway), the Obama Administration's refusal to hand over this documentation during Congressional discussions of domestic wiretapping flies in the face of the administration's claims that transparency is a priority.

According to the EFF, the Obama Administration is doing everything in its power to keep the public away from documents that would show the depth of AT&T and Verizon lobbying efforts aimed at getting immunity for their involvement in the government's warrantless wiretap program. In a website post, the EFF says that despite a Judge ruling that the government must hand over the lobbying documents, the Obama Administration continues to stall via a series of emergency motions aimed at keeping those documents sealed.

As Wired News notes, the DOJ has essentially admitted that when it comes to spying, the nation's biggest phone companies are essentially part of the United States government. Or at least that's the argument being used by the government to try and keep the lobbying documents from being released.

Most consumers are completely clueless about their online privacy. For example, ISPs have quietly been selling your browsing data without your consent for years without anybody bothering to notice. Even during the recent stink over behavioral advertising -- which most consumers also know nothing about -- people remained oblivious to clickstream sales. Your data sold entirely without your consent or knowledge. No problem?

As with most things, a consumer's tendency to be annoyed is directly proportional to how informed they are.