[privacy] NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm
 
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call
records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T,
Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told
USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by
amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom
aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA
listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the
data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity,
sources said in separate interviews.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: The NSA record collection program
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa-qna_x.htm> 

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person,
who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined
to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a
database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person
added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has
detailed records of calls they made - across town or across the country - to
family members, co-workers, business contacts and others. 

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the
NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking
suspected terrorists, they said. 

...

_______________________________________________
privacy mailing list
privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
http://www.whitestar.linuxbox.org/mailman/listinfo/privacy