Good day all. Once upon a time, news came out regarding two systems that Fedzilla was using to eavesdrop on American phone calls, email and other forms of communication. They were Carnivore and Echelon. They were designed to look at a list of keywords and then notify real people to look at the messages.
When the word list leaked, people started adding them to every message they sent out. The idea was to swamp the system with bogus messages and eventually collapse the system. This was back in the 90’s and it also caught the attention of Congress and as I recall, they weren’t to happy. Then came 9/11.
With that, the Three letter Agencies could do pretty much what they wanted and they have been. Now we have a new story of how they’re intercepting data without a warrant. Here are the details from Fox News:
Imagine that every time you make a phone call, someone is keeping an extraordinarily detailed record of the call. They are tracking who you are talking to, when, where and for how long. And they don’t stop there.
They also track the calls of the people you talk to, the people they talk to and so on. This is a reality for millions of Americans who use AT&T’s phone network.
Now this story is looking at the way AT&T hands over information, but all the phone companies do this to one extant or another.
According to a letter obtained by WIRED, a little-known surveillance program called Data Analytical Services (DAS) has been secretly collecting and analyzing more than a trillion domestic phone records within the U.S. each year. The program, which was formerly known as Hemisphere, is run by the telecom giant AT&T in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The article goes into technical details on how the system works. Basically it scoops up everything, both the target anyone who happens to have been in contact with them for any reason. (That will mess things up for the Feds considering all the warranty calls people get) Now they don’t actually listen in on the calls. That still requires a warrant. What they do get is all the meta data.
The program allows law enforcement agencies to access the records of any calls that use AT&T’s infrastructure, which covers a large portion of the country. The records include the phone numbers, dates, times, durations and locations of the calls, as well as the names and addresses of the subscribers.
Feeling paranoid yet? While they don’t know the contents of the calls, they know pretty much everything else. When the FBI invites you to come in and answer a few questions, refuse. When they insist, come in and don’t say a word. If they press, demand a lawyer. When the lawyer arrives, have him/her demand that the interview be recorded. If they refuse, leave.
The DAS program raises serious concerns about the privacy and civil liberties of millions of Americans. It operates without any judicial oversight or public accountability and violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The program also contradicts the spirit of the USA Freedom Act, which was passed in 2015 to reform the bulk collection of phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA). The act required the NSA to stop collecting phone records in bulk and instead request them from the phone companies on a case-by-case basis with a court order. However, the DAS program bypasses this requirement by allowing AT&T to collect and store the records for law enforcement purposes.
That is a nice dodge. And it’s even worse. AT&T is also teaching law enforcement how to use their system to track people without a warrant. This has been around for a while and was meant to be used to track drug dealers. While that is a questionable use, it is understandable. The problem is that this program has expanded far beyond that. Then the program was discovered by the wrong people. (That would be the citizens of the United States)
Former President Barack Obama reportedly suspended the funding for the program in 2013 after The New York Times exposed it for the first time. However, individual law enforcement agencies were allowed to continue contracting with AT&T directly to use the service.
Former President Donald Trump resumed the funding for the program in 2017 but halted it again in 2021. President Biden resumed the funding for the program in 2021 but has not commented on it publicly.
I wonder if President Trump was actually aware of the existence of the program. Considering that there were a lot of Obama holdovers that should have been terminated, and all the damage the lower level bureaucrats did, I suspect he may not have. I’m not at all surprised that the Biden maladministration restarted it. They’ve been using it to track down anyone who was in the area of the Capitol Building on January 6th.
The DAS program has also been challenged by some lawmakers and activists, who have raised serious concerns about its legality and impact. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is a vocal critic of mass surveillance, has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, urging him to investigate and review the program. Wyden has also received some “troubling information” from the Department of Justice, which he is forbidden from disclosing to the public, but which he says would “justifiably outrage many Americans and other members of Congress.”
Sen. Wyden has only one redeeming feature. He is opposed to government monitoring of private communications. On everything else? He’s another lockstep Progressive.
The DAS program has also been challenged by some lawsuits and public records requests, which have sought to expose and stop the program. However, the program has been able to evade or resist these efforts by claiming that the phone records are owned by AT&T, not by the government and that the program is protected by trade secrets and law enforcement privileges.
An AT&T spokesperson said the company is simply complying with the law in cooperating with the government.
Oh this should be good. There is cooperating with court ordered requests and then there is handing over the keys to the Bugatti Veyron with a full tank of gas to a 16 year old who just got his license a week ago.
“We defer to the Justice Department, to whom Sen. Wyden’s letter is addressed, for comment,” the spokesperson said. “Like all companies, we are required by law to comply with subpoenas, warrants, and court orders from government and law enforcement agencies.”
“To be clear, any information referred to in Sen. Wyden’s letter would be compelled by subpoena, warrant or court order,” the spokesperson added.
That isn’t what is happening. They might be asking for a subpoena, but the DoJ hands those out like poker chips at a Vegas casino. What the problem is, is that AT&T, and probably other phone companies, aren’t gathering the data once the paperwork is received, they are gathering it ahead of time and they providing it in a nice, gift wrapped package, and the targets, not to mention the “Collateral innocent bystanders” have no idea.
Now one of the things you can do is use encryption and apps that bypass the phone companies. I’ve been using Signal and just got turned on to Threema. Signal is open source, and Threema is a one time payment of about $6. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Threema doesn’t require a SIM card in the phone. (Just WiFi access) Signal is free, but needs to know your number. They can both be set up to self destruct messages after a period of time. There are other things that you can do, but the major issue is, if you have a cellphone, you also have a tracking and monitoring device.
The DAS program is a massive and secretive phone surveillance program that violates the privacy and civil rights of millions of Americans. The program operates without any judicial oversight or public accountability, and it contradicts the reforms made by the USA Freedom Act. The program also lacks transparency and safeguards to prevent abuse and misuse, and it has been used for a wide range of crimes, not just drug trafficking. The DOJ should investigate and review the program and inform the public about its scope and outcome.
The DoJ won’t “Investigate” this program. They’re using it. Congress needs to exercise it’s oversight responsibilities and frankly, shut it down hard. I mentioned before that this and other systems have been used to track people who were near the Capitol on January 6th, 2020. The problem here is that the FBI and DoJ went after people who were nearby but didn’t enter the building. I doubt they bothered with actual warrants either.
It will be interesting to see what happens in 2025 if/when the Greatest President of the 21st Century, Donald Trump returns to office. He has learned a lot and he will be far better prepared to deal with the DoJ, FBI and all the other 3 letter agencies that either need to be reigned in, or better yet, shut down and disbanded.
Thatisall
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~The Angry Webmaster~
I’ve been repeatedly denigrated as a raving paranoid because I could see this coming. Anybody that has ever gone through a security clearance check would, if they looked at it constantly. Programs like this are part of the “bodyguard of lies” these three letters putzs think must be employed to protect our liberty. I remember back when I was paranoid for thinking that the gps function on your phone would be used for warrantless tracking. Now it’s so common an idea it shows up in cop shows (though they only track the bad guys). The databases at 23&me and other similar companies require no warrant to access and track unlike CODIS. They are now a commonly used tool. Remember “contact tracing” during the panicdemic? This is one of the ways that was used. The enforcement branch of the DNC, usually known as the police union, are not your friends. They will “follow orders” every damned time.