Reasonable Minds Might Inquire

According to the New York Times, on June 21, 2006, AT&T, Inc. announced that:

it was revising its privacy policy, explaining to Internet and video customers that it owns their account records and can hand them over to law enforcers if necessary.

The changes take effect on Friday and come at a time when AT&T and other phone companies face lawsuits claiming they aided a U.S. government domestic spying program by giving the National Security Agency call records of millions of customers without their permission.

The new policy, unlike the old one, spells out the fact that AT&T owns its customers' data. It says that customer information constitutes ``business records that are owned by AT&T. As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process.''

AT&T Revises Privacy Policy, Says Owns Customer Data June 22, 2006. In other words, AT&T is happy to deliver anyone's phone records whenever it decides that it serves its own interests to do so.

Here's my question:

Do the new rules include, or apply to, the records of former customers? How long do they maintain records of their former customers phone usage anyway? Is the NSA going to review my phone records from three or seven years ago or ten years ago?