Media: Secret phone surveillance program spies on millions of Americans

Imagine that every time you make a phone call, someone is listening and recording your conversation. It also tracks who, when, where and for how long you talk. How the secret phone surveillance program works and how to avoid it, the publication told Fox News.

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Tracks the calls of the people you talk to, the people they talk to, and so on. This is the reality for millions of Americans who use AT&T's phone network.

AT&T's role in its massive phone surveillance program

A little-known surveillance program called Data Analytical Services (DAS) secretly collects and analyzes more than a trillion US phone records every year. The program, formerly known as Hemisphere, is being run by telecommunications giant AT&T in coordination with federal and local law enforcement agencies.

How DAS works

The program uses a technique known as chain analysis, which allows it to identify not only those who directly communicated by phone with a suspected criminal, but also everyone with whom these people communicated. This means that innocent people who have nothing to do with the crime may come to the attention of the authorities.

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The program allows law enforcement agencies to access records of all calls made using AT&T infrastructure covering a large part of the country. Records include telephone numbers, dates, times, duration and location of calls, as well as caller names and addresses.

DAS raises privacy and civil liberties concerns

The DAS program raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns for 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.

True, the program 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). Under this law, the NSA would stop bulk collection of telephone data and request it from telephone companies on a case-by-case basis, subject to court order. However, the DAS program bypasses this requirement by allowing AT&T to collect and store records for law enforcement purposes.

How widespread and secret is the DAS program?

The DAS program is not widely known or understood by the public or media. It has reportedly been operating for more than a decade and has received at least $6 million from the White House.

AT&T declined to comment on the program, saying only that it is required by law to comply with a valid subpoena. However, there is no law requiring AT&T to keep recordings of Americans' conversations for decades for law enforcement purposes. Moreover, AT&T voluntarily cooperates with the authorities and even trains them in using the program.

How is the DAS program funded?

The DAS program is funded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) under the HIDTA, or High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, program. HIDTA is a designation for 33 different regions of the United States where drug trafficking is considered a serious problem.

44th US President Barack Obama reportedly suspended funding for the program in 2013 after The New York Times first exposed it. However, some law enforcement agencies were allowed to continue to contract directly with AT&T for the service.

The 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, resumed funding for the program in 2017, but suspended it again in 2021. US President Joe Biden renewed funding for the program in 2021 but has not publicly commented.

Legal and policy issues facing the DAS program

The DAS program has been questioned by some lawmakers and activists, who have raised serious concerns about its legality and implications. Senator Ron Wyden, an outspoken critic of mass surveillance, sent a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to investigate and review the program. Wyden received “disturbing information” from the Justice Department that he is prohibited from disclosing to the public, but which he said would “reasonably outrage many Americans and other members of Congress.”

The DAS program has, among other things, been challenged by a series of lawsuits and public records requests that have attempted to expose and stop it. However, the program managed to avoid or counter these attempts by claiming that the phone records belonged to AT&T, not the government, and the program was protected by trade secrets and law enforcement privileges.

How to avoid being tracked by DAS

There are several possible ways to protect yourself from telephone surveillance. However, none of these methods are fail-safe or guaranteed to work, and some have disadvantages or limitations. Here are some of them:

1. Use of encryption. One way to protect the content of telephone conversations is to use encryption, which encrypts the data in such a way that only the recipient can decipher it. There are some apps that provide end-to-end encryption for voice calls, such as Signal, WhatsApp or Telegram. However, encryption does not protect call metadata such as phone numbers, dates, times, durations, and locations, which can still be collected and analyzed by DAS software. Encryption depends on the reliability and security of the application and its provider.

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2. Use alternative methods of communication. Another way to protect yourself from phone surveillance is to use alternative communication methods that do not rely on AT&T's infrastructure or telephone network. For example, you can use email, chat or video calls, as well as a landline or pay phone. However, these methods may not be as convenient, reliable, or accessible as using your own phone, which comes with its own risks and vulnerabilities. For example, email and chat can be monitored or hacked, and landlines and pay phones can be tapped or tracked.

3. Use tools and methods to ensure confidentiality. The third way to protect yourself from telephone surveillance is to use privacy tools and techniques that can help reduce or hide your digital footprint and identity. For example, you can use a virtual private network (VPN), which allows you to hide the user's IP address and location. It is capable of anonymizing your network activity and traffic. However, these tools and methods are not enough to protect against DAS software, which can still access your phone records and link them to your real identity through chain analysis or other methods.

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