AT&T is reportedly making millions in paid metadata, spying on its customers and charging the government for access to user data.
According to digital rights advocates, AT&T's profitable surveillance program is even bigger than the NSA spying revelations from 2013, when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle.
The Daily Beast reports that AT&T is not simply handing over data to authorities when required to do so, it actually charges the U.S. government between $100,000 and $1 million or more per year to give law enforcement agencies access to its metadata.
This means that user data collection is a real cash cow for AT&T, if the carrier is selling to the government for profit.
Project Hemisphere
According to the report, this AT&T project is called "Hemisphere."
"Hemisphere is a secretive program run by AT&T that searches trillions of call records and analyzes cellular data to determine where a target is located, with whom he speaks, and potentially why," reveals the Daily Beast.
The New York Times reported on Hemisphere back in 2013, but described it as a partnership between the U.S. government and AT&T, which the Department of Justice said was essential in its war on drugs.
The Daily Beast's report, however, reveals a much wider scope for AT&T's Hemisphere program that went well beyond drug busts, turning into a profitable business for the carrier.
"Hemisphere isn't a 'partnership' but rather a product AT&T developed, marketed and sold at a cost of millions of dollars per year to taxpayers," adds the report.
Furthermore, AT&T reportedly sold the data without even requiring a warrant. Law enforcement agencies simply had to pay up and promise not to disclose details about Hemisphere in case an investigation that used the program went public. This means that authorities cannot use Hemisphere data as evidence.
Why This Is Disturbing
The issue here is not that AT&T turned over user data to law enforcement agencies to aid in their investigations. Telecommunications operators are legally required to do so. The issue is that AT&T gave authorities access to data even if they didn't have a warrant, as long as they had money. And for that money, AT&T reportedly went above and beyond to collect customers' personal data.
The Project Hemisphere revelations surface at a critical time for AT&T, as the company wants to acquire Time Warner but faces some serious opposition. Donald Trump said he would block the deal if he's elected president, arguing that it would be bad for consumers and it would give AT&T too much power. The other candidate in the race for presidency, Hillary Clinton, asked regulators to thoroughly scrutinize the deal.
