Recently, news broke that a little-known surveillance program has been secretly collecting and analyzing over a trillion domestic phone records within the United States each year…and it’s called Data Analytical Services (DAS). Formerly known as Hemisphere, this program is run by telecom giant AT&T in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
This means that innocent people who have no connection to any crime can have their phone records swept up and scrutinized by the authorities without any judicial oversight or public accountability.
The DAS program uses a technique known as chain analysis, which targets not only those in direct phone contact with a criminal suspect but anyone with whom those individuals have been in contact as well. The records include the phone numbers, dates, times, durations and locations of the calls, as well as the names and addresses of the subscribers.
It also allows law enforcement agencies to access all calls within AT&T’s infrastructure–which covers most of America–without having to acquire court orders for individual cases first like they did before the USA Freedom Act passed in 2015.
According to a letter obtained by WIRED, a little-known surveillance program called Data Analytical Services (DAS) has been secretly collecting and analyzing more than a trillion domestic phone records within the U.S. each year. The program, which was formerly known as…
— TheTexasOne (@TexasRepublic71) November 25, 2023
The DAS program raises serious concerns about privacy rights and civil liberties of millions of Americans because it operates without any judicial oversight or public accountability and violates Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable searches and seizures.
However there is no law requiring AT&T to store decades’ worth of Americans’ call records for law enforcement purposes. Rather it has chosen voluntarily cooperate with them while training them on how to use this system funded from White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
Furthermore Former President Donald Trump resumed funding for this program in 2017 but halted it again in 2021 before President Biden resumed it once more without much comment on its legality or implications despite some lawmakers like Sen Ron Wyden sending letters seeking answers about its legality while lawsuits challenging it are ongoing thus far unsuccessfully.
