AT&T's spying millions

The Project Hemisphere spying business run by AT&T, which sells customer phone logs to the police, is raking in millions for the telco.

Invoices leaked to the Daily Beast show that numerous police forces are handing hundreds of thousands of dollars to AT&T in exchange for the call times, recipients, and locations of caller data the telco holds – some of which go back to the 1980s. The invoices show a minimum order of low-six figures, but some contracts reap nearly $1m of public money from Hawaii police for a single year’s service.

“It’s like that line, ‘if you build it, they will come,’ said said ACLU technology policy analyst Christopher Soghoian.

“Once a company creates a huge surveillance apparatus like this and provides it to law enforcement, they then have to provide it whenever the government asks. They’ve developed this massive program and of course they’re going to sell it to as many people as possible.” ®