Report: Government Collecting Verizon Customer Phone Records
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(LONDON) — Phone records of millions of Verizon customers have been collected daily by the National Security Agency since late April based on a joint request by the NSA and FBI, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.
According to the order granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Verizon is turning over information that includes phone numbers of both parties, location data and length of calls, as well as time and duration. This includes conversations that occur either within U.S. borders or when a Verizon customers calls someone aboard.
The NSA is forbidden from gathering the contents of messages or personal information regarding the Verizon subscriber. Presumably, however, the NSA could learn information about how, when and possibly where a subscriber contacted the other party.
The NSA will continue receiving the Verizon phone records until July 19. The policy was one also used during the second Bush administration in an effort to learn of any threats to national security although in the current instance, the request by the NSA goes far beyond targeting suspected agents of terrorist groups or so-called rogue nations.
When reached by The Guardian, the White House, Justice Department, NSA and Verizon all refused to comment about the story.
However, a senior White House official responded Thursday morning, declaring in part, “On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the Government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls. The information acquired does not include the content of any communications or the name of any subscriber. It relates exclusively to metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call.”
The official goes on to call the information in question “a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States,” and says that all orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “are subject to strict controls and procedures under oversight of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FISA Court, to ensure that they comply with the Constitution and laws of the United States and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties.”
That may not be good enough justification for at least one former White House official. Former Vice President Al Gore tweeted a link to the article Wednesday night, adding, “In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?”
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