A covert surveillance initiative, under the purview of the White House, provides law enforcement agencies with unparalleled access to vast troves of American phone records, giving rise to substantial concerns related to privacy and legality.
Do NOT Be A Victim of Violence This Holiday Season! LISTEN:
Listen to “Bash their brains right the F*CK in! – A Holiday Message” on Spreaker.
An investigation by Wired has unveiled a clandestine White House surveillance program known as Data Analytical Services (DAS), which allows federal, state, and local law enforcement entities to retrieve a comprehensive array of U.S. phone records.
Operating in collaboration with telecommunications giant AT&T, DAS conducts thorough analyses of American call records for law enforcement agencies at all levels of government.
This arrangement not only includes the direct phone contacts of criminal suspects but also encompasses their social networks, intruding into the lives of individuals not under suspicion of any criminal wrongdoing.
For more than a decade, DAS has been tracking over a trillion domestic phone records annually. Initially named Hemisphere, the program has evolved to employ chain analysis, extending its scrutiny beyond the direct contacts of suspects to encompass a broader network of people, including innocent bystanders.
Diverging significantly from traditional wiretapping, which necessitates a warrant based on probable cause, DAS relies on AT&T’s records containing information such as caller and recipient names, phone numbers, and the dates and times of calls.
Notably, AT&T is not legally obliged to retain these records for extended periods, yet it voluntarily does so, showcasing a cooperative relationship that benefits law enforcement.
DAS operates on an enormous scale, covering records traversing the entire United States through AT&T’s infrastructure. Despite its extensive operation, the program has largely remained under the radar, with limited public awareness until recently.
The secrecy is compounded by the fact that the White House, exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, oversees the program, further limiting public insight into its functioning.
Recent leaks and public records have brought to light the widespread use of DAS in various law enforcement contexts. This includes requests for “Hemisphere analysis” to identify suspects based on their social connections, underscoring the program’s expansive scope.
Leaked files also reveal the involvement of a range of officials, from postal inspectors to parole officers, in DAS training sessions, indicating its widespread adoption across different branches of law enforcement.
