AT&T Gets $10M a Year From CIA to Comb Records, Share Data
AT&T is paid $10 million annually by the CIA to share call data, reports The Times. Such deals are likely to complicate a Vodafone acquisition.
AT&T is paid more than $10 million a year to help the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with its "overseas counterterrorism investigations," The New York Times reported Nov. 7. AT&T has a voluntary contract with the CIA, and is "not under subpoenas or court orders compelling the company to participate," said the report, citing government officials.
According to The Times, the CIA captures the phone numbers of terrorism suspects abroad and gives these to AT&T, which searches its database for records of calls related to that number. AT&T "has a huge archive of data on phone calls, both foreign and domestic, that were handled by its network equipment, not just those of its own customers," said the report.
