The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday asked the state Utilities and Transportation Commission to look into whether telephone companies here "have regularly shared consumer telephone records with the National Security Agency without legal authority."

The request was prompted by a May 11th article ("NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls") in USA Today. The article, citing anonymous sources, states that some phone companies provided information -- like what phone numbers called each other -- from millions of residential phone customers. (One of the three companies named in the article -- BellSouth -- flatly denies any such cooperation with the agency.)

"If true, these companies have seriously violated the privacy of their customers by disclosing information that reveals their association, interests and a host of personal details about their lives," the state ACLU's Kathleen Taylor and Doug Klunder wrote to the commission members.

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