Secretive surveillance program has been tracking Americans’ phone records for over a decade: Report

A secretive White House surveillance program has allowed law enforcement agencies to track Americans’ phone records for over a decade, according to a letter recently obtained by Wired.

The letter, written by U.S. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon and addressed to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, explained that a program called Data Analytical, formerly known as Hemisphere, allows federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to retrieve the phone records of Americans — even those who are not suspected of being involved in a crime.

Law enforcement agencies are permitted to collect the phone record data of individuals suspected of a crime or anyone who has been in contact with someone suspected of a crime. Phone records turned over by AT&T to law enforcement agencies can include the name of the caller and recipient, phone numbers, and the dates and times of those calls. In some cases, it can also include location information, Wired reported. The data collected is not wiretapping, which would require a warrant.

In the letter, Wyden urged Garland to allow the public release of information tied to the former Hemisphere Project. He described it as “a long-running dragnet surveillance program in which the White House pays AT&T to provide all federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies the ability to request often-warrantless searches of trillions of domestic phone records.”

The New York Times exposed the existence of the Hemisphere Project in September 2013. That same year, the program was renamed. Funding for the project was suspended in 2013 by former President Barack Obama. However, a White House memo obtained by Wired revealed that the local law enforcement agencies were still permitted to directly contract with AT&T to collect phone record data.

Funding for the program was briefly resumed under former President Donald Trump in 2017 and paused in 2021. The Biden administration again resumed funding last year.

According to Wyden, AT&T has held on to Hemisphere Project queries dating back to 1987. He called the program “stunning in its scope” and questioned its legality.

“Although the Hemisphere Project is paid for with federal funds, they are delivered to AT&T through an obscure grant program, enabling the program to skip an otherwise mandatory federal privacy review,” Wyden claimed.

“I have serious concerns about the legality of this surveillance program, and the materials provided by the DOJ contain troubling information that would justifiably outrage many Americans and other members of Congress,” he added.

Kim Hart Jonson, a spokesperson for AT&T, declined a request for comment from Wired but noted that the company is legally required to comply with lawful subpoenas. The outlet noted that no law requires companies like AT&T to hold onto decades of Americans’ phone records.

The White House has not provided a comment to Wired.

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