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US govt pays AT&T to let cops search Americans' phone records – 'usually' without a warrant
(www.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Privacy
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
A senator has complained that American law enforcement agencies snoop on US citizens and residents, seemingly without regard for the privacy provisions of the Fourth Amendment, under a secret program called the Hemisphere Project that allows police to conduct searches of trillions of phone records.
"I have serious concerns about the legality of this surveillance program, and the materials provided by the DoJ contain troubling information that would justifiably outrage many Americans and other members of Congress," Wyden wrote in a letter [PDF] to US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
AT&T declined to answer any specific questions about Hemisphere, but a spokesperson told The Register: "To be clear, any information referred to in Senator Wyden's letter would be compelled by subpoena, warrant, or court order."
Hemisphere first came to light in a 2013 New York Times report that alleged the "scale and longevity of the data storage appears to be unmatched by other government programs, including the NSA's gathering of phone call logs under the Patriot Act."
The White House doesn't directly pay AT&T - instead the ONDCP provides a grant to the Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which is a partnership between federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.
He also cites ONDCP slides and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) emails disclosing that AT&T searches records kept by its wholesale division, which carries communications on behalf of other telecom companies and their customers.
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