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Civil Liberties Concerns Voiced after Verizon Hands over Call Records to NSA

TMCnews Featured Article


June 06, 2013

Civil Liberties Concerns Voiced after Verizon Hands over Call Records to NSA

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor


Concerns are mounting from civil liberties advocates this week after it was reported that Verizon may be providing millions of its call records to the U.S. National Security Agency (News - Alert) (NSA).


The records – which likely relate to tens of millions of customers – were ordered to be turned over to the top spy agency after a secret court order in April, news reports said.

The order – which appears to be in effect for three months from April 25 to July 19 – allows the NSA to get daily information about calls made in the United States and from foreign locations into the United States, according to The Washington Post.

It doesn’t allow the government to access the content of the calls – but provides the government other information related to the calls, such as “the numbers of both parties on a call…location data and the time and duration of all calls,” news reports said.

It may be the widest order of its kind in the history of the United States.

It was apparently issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. The order was signed by U.S. Judge Roger Vinson.

The story, first reported by The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, also shows the “scale of domestic surveillance” under the Obama administration, the report said.

Yet, an unnamed official in the Obama administration told The Post the order “does not allow the government to listen in on anyone’s telephone calls” but relates only to “metadata, such as a telephone number or the length of a call.”

Civil liberties groups were quick to issue statements.

“As far as we know, this order from the FISA court is the broadest surveillance order to ever have been issued,” the Center for Constitutional Rights stated. “It requires no level of suspicion and applies to all Verizon (News - Alert) subscribers anywhere in the U.S. It also contains a gag order prohibiting Verizon from disclosing information about the order to anyone other than their counsel.”

The center blamed the Patriot (News - Alert) Act’s “incredibly broad surveillance provision” for allowing this kind of order.

“Its constitutionality is in question and several senators have complained about it,” the center added about the law. “The Patriot Act provision requires the FBI to notify Congress about the number of such warrants, but this single order covering millions of people is a deceptive end-run around that disclosure requirement.”

In addition, former vice president Al Gore said in a Tweet, “In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?”

The Guardian ran a copy of the order forcing the turnover of records.

“The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration, the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing,” The Guardian reported.

But supporters of the Patriot Act have said it has prevented acts of terrorism.

At this point, it is still an open question if other cell-phone companies – beyond Verizon – were given such an order.

On Wednesday, Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said the company had no comment, TMCnet reported. The NSA and White House declined to comment, as well.

Meanwhile, several news agencies tried to confirm The Guardian story independently, but could not because it involves classified documents.




Edited by Alisen Downey







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