Privacy security

Exposed: AT&T Has Been Working With Washington to Spy on Americans for Years

The quietly developed program, known as Project Hemisphere, was first detailed by the New York Times in 2013, but few know when the program was initially launched. In the 2000s, AT&T was said to have created software to dig through its databases, in an attempt to identify criminal activity. The communications company was revealed in 2007 to have handed over personal user data to law enforcement, causing public outcry.

In the 2013 Times report, Project Hemisphere was branded as a cooperative effort between AT&T and the Federal Drug Administration. It was said that the communication corporation used its data-mining software to surveil its phone records, analyzing and handing over information to authorities. The data includes user locations, timing of conversations, as well as possible reasons for talks.