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A secret court order requires Verizon to hand over all of its call data to the government, according to a stunning late Wednesday scoop by the Guardian. The order applies to millions of Americans, and allows the NSA to collect phone records without linking calls to a specific individual suspected of wrongdoing. We know that the Bush Administration collected phone records in bulk, but now, it seems, there's documentation of the practice's continued existence.

The order doesn't cover the content of the conversation itself or the subscriber's personal information, but allows the government to collect almost everything else about the call, loosely defined as its "metadata." (If you're interested in what the government can learn about you from this data, check out National Journal and the Guardian's excellent explainers) It also prohibits Verizon from talking about the request for records, or the order itself. The order reads (emphasis ours):

"IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, the Custodian of Records shall produce to the National Security Agency (NSA) upon service of this Order, and continue production on an ongoing daily basis thereafter for the duration of this Order, unless otherwise ordered by the Court, an electronic copy of the following tangible things: all call detail records or "telephony metadata" created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls. This Order does not require Verizon to produce telephony metadata for communications wholly originating and terminating in foreign countries. Telephony metadata includes comprehensive communications routing information,. including but not limited to session identifying information (e.g., originating and terminating telephone number, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number, International Mobile station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, etc.), trunk identifier, telephone calling card numbers, and time and duration of call. Telephony metadata does not include the substantive content of any communication, as defined by 18 U.S.C. ? 2510(8), or the name, address, or financial information of a subscriber or customer."

As the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald notes, the order seems to explain the repeated warnings by Democratic Senators, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, who sit on the Senate intelligence committee. They've hinted at the government's surveillance powers are much more broad than most Americans would assume. Orders like this one, which went into effect in April and lasts until mid-June, could very well be what they were referring to.