AT&T Acknowledges Charging Governments for Information Requests
AT&T Inc. acknowledged Thursday that it routinely charges governments for handling information requests, but wouldn’t comment on a report that it had such an arrangement with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
A story in the New York Times said the telecom giant was receiving more than $10 million a year from the CIA for assistance in counterterrorism investigations under a voluntary contract.
AT&T declined to comment on those details and said in a statement, “In all cases, whenever any governmental entity anywhere seeks information from us, we ensure that the request and our response are completely lawful and proper.”
The carrier’s comments that it gets paid to handle requests for information about users of its network reveal a bit more about the telecom industry’s relationship with security agencies at a time of heavy scrutiny of the U.S. government’s information gathering practices.
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-376302/
C.I.A. Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data
The C.I.A. is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company’s vast database of phone records, which includes Americans’ international calls, according to government officials.
The cooperation is conducted under a voluntary contract, not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the company to participate, according to the officials. The C.I.A. supplies phone numbers of overseas terrorism suspects, and AT&T searches its database and provides records of calls that may help identify foreign associates, the officials said. The company has a huge archive of data on phone calls, both foreign and domestic, that were handled by its network equipment, not just those of its own customers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/cia-is-said-to-pay-att-for-call-data.html
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