The CIA is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to have limited access to the company’s huge database of phone records, states the New York Times . The scandal comes at the end of a year in which a string of the major IT conglomerates have been reported to be the target of intelligence agency spying

The report cited several anonymous government officials who say that AT&T provides the CIA with the data from phone calls the agency believes are associated with terrorism suspects. What’s more, the alleged arrangement not only covers the data of calls of AT&T customers, but any call that travels through its telecom infrastructure.

Federal officials told New York Times’ correspondent, Charlie Savage, that the CIA/AT&T cooperation is conducted under a voluntary contract rather than a subpoenas agreement that compels the company to participate.









How the Two Work Together

Going into greater detail into the workings of the arrangement, the New York Times continued that the CIA supplies the phone numbers of terrorism suspects living overseas. AT&T then searches its database and supplies the CIA with any records of calls it has which might help the agency identify those implicated with terrorism.

As the CIA is forbidden from surveying the activities of Americans on domestic soil, the agency imposes privacy that safeguards domestic citizens, stated the anonymous officials. The report also added that most of the telephone data provided by AT&T involves foreign-to-foreign calls.

When, however, the company produces records of international calls with one end either beginning or ending in the United States, it does not reveal the identity of the American participant of the call by masking several digits of their phone number. However, if needs be, the CIA can refer the masked numbers to the FBI which can then issue a subpoena which would require AT&T to provide the data uncensored.

The CIA has declined to confirm the name of the program. It does however claim all its intelligence collection activities are lawful and “subject to extensive oversight”.

“The CIA protects the nation and upholds privacy rights of Americans by ensuring that its intelligence collection activities are focused on acquiring foreign intelligence and counter-intelligence in accordance with US laws,” said Dean Boyd, a spokesperson for the CIA. “The CIA is expressly forbidden from undertaking intelligence collection activities inside the United States ‘for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of the US persons’ and the CIA does not do so,” added Boyd.

AT&T also declined to comment about “questions concerning national security”. A company spokesperson did state that AT&T values its customer privacy and “works hard to protect it by ensuring compliance with the law in all respects”.