A tiny bit of mud in the all-seeing eye

Here's a sentence you don't hear uttered very often in the Beaver State: "Oh, thank goodness, we're safe now--here comes the Public Utilities Commission!" The folks at the PUC just aren't always Oregon utility customers' best friends.

Still, that being said, there's at least a small cause for optimism in the news that the PUC has reversed its position: It's going to look into Verizon playing footsies under the table with the NSA regarding our phone records after all.

Oregon phone regulators initially said state law gives them no authority to investigate alleged privacy violations. After the American Civil Liberties Union filed a formal complaint Wednesday, though, regulators said they will look into the phone companies' actions after all.

USA Today reported that Oregon's largest phone company, Qwest Communications International Inc., did not cooperate with the NSA's program.

However, the paper said Verizon Communications Inc. did participate; Verizon declined direct comment, citing the classified nature of the NSA's program, but later issued a carefully worded statement disputing some reports.

(Digression: At first I would have suspected Qwest--with its history of legendary disdain for its customers reaching back to its USWest days--to have been the one to sell us out, not Verizon. But rolling over for the administration that could deregulate them to their immense profit is the smart move. Verizon was always smarter.)

But the PUC's effort appears half-hearted at best, more an attempt to dodge the sharp stick the ACLU is poking into its back than a genuine effort to get to the bottom of this:

Oregon phone privacy rules are based on federal law, according to Phil Nyegaard, telecommunications administrator for the Oregon Public Utility Commission. For Oregon regulators to find a company in violation, he said, a federal court or agency would have to do so first.

State regulators will nonetheless try to collect information about phone companies' actions, Nyegaard said, but don't believe they can act without a clear ruling from federal authorities.

Expect the ACLU to keep working this from both ends, prodding the state PUCs and going after that federal court ruling.

Be seeing you.