Shareholders raise surveillance concerns at AT&T, Verizon

By Ross Kerber and Sinead Carew BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shareholders of telecom giants AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc are trying to find extra small print related to their sharing of customer knowledge with governments, displaying traders beginning to ward off over the role of communications companies in spying operations. Activists together with Trillium Asset Management of Boston and the $161 billion New York State In style Retirement Fund have filed proposals for the spring shareholder meetings of AT&T and Verizon, representatives stated. Each resolutions name on the businesses to file semi-annually on "metrics and dialogue concerning requests for consumer data by U.S. and overseas governments." As carriers of huge amounts of voice and data visitors, the telecommunications firms had been on the middle of controversies over the use of their data by way of U.S. intelligence agencies.