AT&T has written a request to the US Securities and Exchange Commission asking for permission to allow it to ignore a shareholder request, which asks for the details regarding how the company shares customer information with government agencies. Reuters reported that the second largest mobile operator in the US wrote a letter on December 5 to the regulator as a response to activist shareholders who had pursued the issue.
Last month, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the trustee of the pension fund of the state, and other shareholders asked that AT&T and Verizon Communications give the details on how they share personal data and communications after former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's revelations. In addition, the shareholders also included media reports that showed intelligence agencies were involved with the telecommunications firms as well as the criticism from leaders of foreign governments.
The shareholders said the credibility of the companies with its customers is at stake. They urged the companies to schedule a vote on a measure that called for semi-annual reports that would be published detailing the frequency of customer information shared with agencies, both in the US and abroad. The reports would also provide details on the kind of information given.
AT&T, however, gave arguments in its letter to convince the regulator that its request to exclude the measure from its 2014 annual meeting should be granted. AT&T said that the matter does not fall under the control of shareholders as it relates to ordinary business operations. Reuters, who saw the letter, also reported that AT&T wrote that government surveillance practices were the more significant subject of public debate.
Trillium Asset Management Senior Vice President Jonas Kron, who also co-filed the resolution along with other shareholders, was disappointed. In a phone interview with Bloomberg, he said, "We're disappointed that the company is demonstrating an unwillingness to have a public discussion with its shareholders about a matter of such importance."
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