It appears that AT&T and the U.S. government are both involved in a government surveillance program; based on the information revealed via leaked police documents, a White House Memo, and a letter by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden to the Department of Justice, all of these things combined, confirm that millions of Americans are being spied on.
The U.S. government managed to monitor trillions of phone calls using AT&T's infrastructure
The investigation reveals that federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities have been taking part in surveilling millions of U.S. citizens, and this has been going on for over a decade. Dubbed the Data Analytical Services (DAS), the program is used to track call records of criminals and, in addition to that, their friends, friends of their families, and several other people who are not even on the list of suspects. The program was previously called the Hemisphere, and it manages to capture the call data with the help of AT&T, which happens to be one of the largest U.S. carriers.
A White House Memo that was reviewed by Wired also mentions that the President's office aided the program with over $6 million so the calls made using the AT&T infrastructure can be recorded without any issues. Kim Hart, a spokesperson for the carrier, refused to comment on the DAS and mentioned how the company will have to comply with the legal requests.
“While DAS is managed under a program devoted to drug trafficking, a leaked file from the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC) shows that local police agencies, such as those in Daly City and Oakland, requested DAS data for unsolved cases seemingly unrelated to drugs."
There are instances mentioned in the report talking about how the police asked for DAS data just so they could identify suspects along with the victims by spying on their close friends. The document also reveals that the scope of the DAS program is much larger than how inspectors working at the US Postal Service, as well as parole officers working at the New York Department of Corrections, have received the training.
However, this is not the first time we have heard about the DAS program. The funding was stopped back in 2013 by former President Obama. However, after Donald Trump took oath, the funding was resumed, and then a pin was put in it back in 2021. Sadly, the funding has started once again under the current administration.
There is an entire, comprehensive report by Wired talking about how the DAS program works, as well as AT&T's involvement in the program, that you can read at the end of this article. Honestly, after going through the report itself and reading about it, I realize that I am not as surprised as I thought I would be. This reminded me of Sean Parker's quote from The Social Network, saying, "Private behavior is a relic of a time gone by," and after reading this report, it is sad to admit that it is true.
News Source: Wired
