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AT&T Sells Your Phone Records To The CIA For Cold Hard Cash
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Nov 7, 2013
Modified Nov 7, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Nov 7, 2013
Modified Nov 7, 2013
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The CIA is paying AT&T more than $10 million each year for the phone records of Americans who make calls overseas. According to the New York Times, the agreement is the result of a voluntary contract, not government subpoenas or one of those 2-year-contracts that you sign so your phone doesn't cost $700. This revelation isn't to be confused with a recent report that AT&T was taking money from the DEA to probe Americans' phone records back to 1987, though now the DEA is probably going to ask AT&T for a free shock-resistant iPhone case and a Bluetooth headset.
Ostensibly, the program was designed to monitor the metadata from only foreign calls, but because the world is a knotty, complicated place where no one can ever truly be alone, invariably American numbers crop up. The CIA's solution is to "mask" a few digits of calls coming to or from an American number. Problem solved.
“We value our customers’ privacy and work hard to protect it by ensuring compliance with the law in all respects," an AT&T spokesman told the paper, perhaps forgetting about that time it assisted the Bush administration in conducting warrantless wiretapping, or when it placed employees in FBI buildings to better facilitate an illegal exchange of information [PDF].
Otherwise, AT&T really values your privacy. It also really needs the cash.
Tagged
at&t
c.i.a.
phone companies
spying
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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