[privacy] NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

"We're from the government, and we're here to help you."

"Us, too." - Your friendly neighborhood telco

Via USA Today.

[snip]

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, 
using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary 
Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording 
conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist 
activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about 
the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of 
every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

[snip]

More here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/

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