Report: Verizon Has Been Turning Over Call Logs for All of their Customers to the NSA

dgstorm

Editor in Chief
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
10,992
Reaction score
3,961
Location
Austin, TX
secret-phone-calls.jpg

Update: One of our insider sources at Verizon was able to send us a .pdf of the actual court order to which this article refers. To be clear, this can also be found at a few other sites on the web covering this news. We aren't claiming to have any special exclusives, but we found it interesting to have the actual document from Verizon in hand and wanted to share it with you guys. Here it is: Verizon-top-secret-court-order-from-nsa.pdf

Under a top secret court order filed in April, the National Security Agency has been collecting call logs for all Verizon Wireless customers, including the numbers of both parties on a call, the location data, the call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls.

The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.

The court order concerns all calls to, from and within the United States, and it utilizes aspects of the 2001 Bush-era provision in the Patriot Act (50 USC section 1861) in order to combine federal datasets and look for patterns on anything which could be related to terrorism.

Despite the seemingly benign intended purpose, this basically boils down to millions of American citizens being spied upon by their own government. What is most disturbing is the unlimited nature of the information being handed over to the NSA. Here's a quote with a few more of the details,

The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compels Verizon to produce to the NSA electronic copies of "all call detail records or 'telephony metadata' created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls".

The order directs Verizon to "continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this order". It specifies that the records to be produced include "session identifying information", such as "originating and terminating number", the duration of each call, telephone calling card numbers, trunk identifiers, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, and "comprehensive communication routing information".

The information is classed as "metadata", or transactional information, rather than communications, and so does not require individual warrants to access. The document also specifies that such "metadata" is not limited to the aforementioned items. A 2005 court ruling judged that cell site location data – the nearest cell tower a phone was connected to – was also transactional data, and so could potentially fall under the scope of the order.

While the order itself does not include either the contents of messages or the personal information of the subscriber of any particular cell number, its collection would allow the NSA to build easily a comprehensive picture of who any individual contacted, how and when, and possibly from where, retrospectively.

It is not known whether Verizon is the only cell-phone provider to be targeted with such an order, although previous reporting has suggested the NSA has collected cell records from all major mobile networks. It is also unclear from the leaked document whether the three-month order was a one-off, or the latest in a series of similar orders.

For now only a court order for Verizon has been shown, but it is possible other carriers might be under similar court orders. There is no evidence to suggest one way or the other at this time. It is important to note that the actual content of the telephone conversations is not what has been handed over, although what the NSA did gather is still a shocking amount of detail. Here is their statement on the matter,

“Information of the sort described in this article from The Guardian newspaper has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located in the United States… On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls.”

Ultimately, no matter how this turns out for the U.S. Government and the NSA, this is a PR nightmare for Verizon. Yes, they were issued a court order, but they apparently didn't put up any fight to protect their customers either. Of course, The Guardian didn't indicate how they received a record of this top secret court order, so we don't really yet know enough facts to make snap judgments. Still, it is justifiably disconcerting, and we can likely expect a firestorm in the news media for at least a few weeks.

Source: The Guardian
 
OP
dgstorm

dgstorm

Editor in Chief
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
10,992
Reaction score
3,961
Location
Austin, TX
Here's another one,

can-you-monitor-me-now.jpg


And here's the source where "ck" found these hilarious pics...
 

devdeuce

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
262
Reaction score
23
I would bet anything that all carriers are involved, Verizon is just the only carrier to admit it so far.
 
OP
dgstorm

dgstorm

Editor in Chief
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
10,992
Reaction score
3,961
Location
Austin, TX
No one is suggesting that Verizon is to blame, but it is equally foolish to assume they have no culpability in this matter. The fact is, they could/should have found a way to fight this. If they had simply refused, then the Government would have no choice but to go public to force the issue.

On the other hand, it's entirely possible that Verizon themselves leaked this info as they felt it was the only way out of a bad situation. The link above posted by bkdoger suggests that might be a possibility since Verizon is calling out the President to come clean on the problem. If so, then Kudos to Verizon for a crafty way of dealing with the issue. Things are definitely getting interesting.

Here are some more details of what's been going on in the background: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/verizon-on-offense-behind-the-scenes-92343.html
 

devdeuce

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2012
Messages
262
Reaction score
23
The government go public? That's not how they work, fighting them would not go well. Check out the news, not the mainstream.
 
OP
dgstorm

dgstorm

Editor in Chief
Staff member
Premium Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
10,992
Reaction score
3,961
Location
Austin, TX
The government go public? That's not how they work, fighting them would not go well. Check out the news, not the mainstream.

I wasn't being clear. I didn't mean to suggest that the Government would intentionally go public. I meant they would have to find a way to force/punish Verizon. There would be virtually no way to do that without the whole thing going public because of how the court system works.
 

helron

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
346
Reaction score
16
Wait For other telco providers to have done the same. If you think Verizon is the only provider who complied with the order your mistaken.
Hey! Talk about big government. Wow! This really pushes it to the limit. Maybe the next step will be to have a Federal Telco and Internet Provider. This will enable the government to freely spy on all of us. WOW! Talk about Big Brother? And their worried about unlocking phones???? Gimme a break!
 

vannDROID

Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2011
Messages
42
Reaction score
6
"In the name of terrorism"......."Protecting the homeland".....Those have now become the cornerstone remarks for the government to get people to give up their rights.
 

Vepaot

Silver Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
530
Reaction score
191
Location
KCMO
Current Phone Model
LG G5 (LS992)
I made a tinfoil hat for my phone so now they can't monitor me.

...I can't make phone calls either...but that's the price you pay for your freedoms.
 

helron

Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2011
Messages
346
Reaction score
16
Well, we shouldn't just sit back and accept this. I'm going to put my phone to work, while I still can, and call my legislators before they shut down my phone service:mad:

Sent from my XT912 using Tapatalk 2
 

cereal killer

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 29, 2009
Messages
11,254
Reaction score
1,269
Location
Austin, TX
Current Phone Model
Nokia Lumia Icon
"In the name of terrorism"......."Protecting the homeland".....Those have now become the cornerstone remarks for the government to get people to give up their rights.

sad thing is is that people will happily give up their freedoms in the name of "feeling safer" American's are clueless. Ask them who Kim Kardashian is secretly dating or what star is having a baby with who, and they will vomit up the answer right away. Ask them who the VP of the US is and they haven't a clue. I'm not joking.....ahh well that's a whole other thread and forum :big smile:
 
Top