One of the big stories in the news these days is that the National Security Agency (NSA) is apparently collecting information about millions of telephone calls made by Americans since 9/11.
They’re apparently trying to get source and destination phone numbers as well as call time and duration for every phone call made in the United States, presumably to do some kind of data mining and social network analysis.
Many of the major telephone providers have apparently cooperated with them, even though disclosure of what’s called Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) is strictly regulated by federal law, and the NSA has not been obtaining court orders for this information.
My telephone company, SBC, was recently taken over by ATT, which is specifically named in the news stories. So…
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am an SBC customer, and I’m disturbed by the recent news reports indicating that ATT (among others) has turned over information about their customers’ calling patterns to the National Security Agency. I would like to find out more about that.
First of all, do you have a statement on the matter? I tried searching your customer support database for “NSA” and “National Security Agency” and found nothing pertinent.
Second, what specific information about my calling patterns does your company maintain and for how long? How do I get a copy of the records?
Third, what specific information about my account have you have disclosed to the NSA, and how do I get a copy of those records?
As I understand your Privacy Policy, you should not disclose CPNI to government agencies without a court order (except when reporting fraud or providing 911 service or similar situations). Yet your company is specifically named in several of the news reports, and those reports make clear that no court order was used.
I would appreciate your clarification of this matter.
Thank you,
— Mark Draughn, customer account 773-[redacted]
I’ll post their response, if any.
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