Top secret doc shows NSA demands Verizon hand over millions of phone records daily
On Wednesday, The Guardian published a secret order issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowing the National Security Agency (NSA) to demand vast swaths of metadata from Verizon. The order, which specifies that Verizon hand over the information on an “ongoing, daily basis,” encompasses the phone records pertaining to all of Verizon's American customers, whether the communications are between US-based callers, or between a US caller and an international caller.
The order is unique in its broad demands and shows that the NSA is amassing a hoard of metadata that includes the phone numbers of both parties, the duration of the conversation, the time of the conversation, location data, telephone calling card numbers, and unique identifiers pertaining to the phones. While this order does not permit the NSA to listen to the conversation itself and also does not require Verizon to hand over the “name, address, or financial information of a subscriber or customer,” the metadata still offers more information about the phone calls of American citizens than many would feel comfortable handing over.
