By Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson/ProPublica
Newly disclosed documents unveiling the close relationship between the National Security Agency and AT&T could breathe new life into a long-running legal dispute about the NSA’s controversial method of tapping the Internet backbone on U.S. soil.
NSA Spying Relies on AT&T’s ‘Extreme Willingness to Help’
The National Security Agency’s ability to capture internet traffic on U. S. soil has been based on an extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: AT&T. Read the story.
A Trail of Evidence Leading to AT&T’s Partnership with the NSA
Documents provided by Edward Snowden mention a special relationship between the National Security Agency and an unnamed telecommunications company. Here’s how we figured out that’s AT&T. Read the story. |
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This program, according to documents provided by Edward Snowden, is largely enabled by telecom giant AT&T, which filters internet traffic, based on NSA instructions. AT&T then forwards the “take” to the spy agency’s storage facilities for further review and analysis.
But a single e-mail traverses the Internet in hundreds of tiny slices, called “packets,” that travel separate routes. Grabbing even one e-mail requires a computer search of many slices of other people’s messages.
Privacy advocates have long argued in court that grabbing portions of so many e-mails – involving people not suspected of anything – is a violation of the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures provided by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group, is now hoping that the new documents will bolster their claims in a long-running case, Jewel v. NSA.
“We will be presenting this information to the court,” said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the foundation. A Department of Justice spokesman declined to comment.
So far, the only court that has reviewed the constitutional question is the secret panel of jurists known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This court only hears arguments from the government and all of their decisions are highly classified.
Other federal courts have declined to debate the constitutional question for fear that discussing any collaboration with telecom companies would damage American security.
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Posted on August 18, 2015
