AT&T has released its Transparency Report, which shows that in 2013 the U.S. government requested details for more than 35,000 user accounts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) was surrounded by controversies after Edward Snowden leaked classified documents about the agency's data collection process, including recording telephone calls. In December 2013, AT&T and Verizon agreed to release a report detailing government request for customer information. Now both the carriers have released a Transparency Report revealing the number of government requests received in 2013.
The total government request as indicated on the Transparency Report released by AT&T amounts to 301,816, which includes phone records and subscriber information, split between subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants. The U.S. carrier said that it cannot legally specify the number of national security requests it received from the NSA; however, AT&T says that it will include new information as allowed by government policy changes going forward.
"We take our responsibility to protect your information and privacy very seriously, and we pledge to continue to do so to the fullest extent possible and always in compliance with the law of the country where the relevant service is provided. Like all companies, we must provide information to government and law enforcement agencies to comply with court orders, subpoenas, lawful discovery requests and other legal requirements. We ensure that these requests are valid and that our responses comply with the law and our own policies," per an AT&T statement.
The AT&T Transparency Report indicates that the most common requests came in the form of subpoenas, which totaled at 248,343 for criminal and civil cases. Location demand number requests accounted for 37,839 between historical and real-time data and information pulled down from cell towers.
According to the report, just 22 requests were made for international data. Verizon also released its Transparency Report recently, but AT&T does not go into the same kind of details as what Verizon provided in its report regarding the nations that data was coming from.
AT&T revealed that that it received between 2,000 and 2,999 national security letters in 2013. However, the report shows 35,000 and 35,999 requests made under FISA for data that eventually makes it of the NSA.
The carrier also confirmed that it will release reports like this on a semi-annual basis.
