« Arline ticket could give away your identity | Main | DHS: personal privacy, security risks outweigh benefits of RFID technology »
May 12, 2006
NSA acquiring phone logs from major telecom companies
USA Today reported on Thursday that AT&T, bellsouth, and verizon have been cooperating with the NSA in providing phone records for all domestic calls in the U.S. since 9/11. While personal information isn't provided as part of the Call database, records records do include every phone call made by every wireless and land-line subscriber. According to sources in the story, that data is then used to identify patterns that might reflect terrorist behaviors. Reportedly, the NSA can then run information against their other databases to identify phone users they perceive as threats.
President Bush quickly defended the program and asserted that the program acts within the law and "fiercely protects" the privacy of Americans.
USA today has additional articles up related to other firms contributing information to the NSA and other government agencies.
Posted by Matt Ford at May 12, 2006 06:28 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://observer.medill.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/movtyp/mt-tb.cgi/168