« The most important surveillance story you will see for years just went online, revealing how AT&T became the internet’s biggest enemy, secretly collaborating against its customers and partners to destroy your privacy. »
That was how whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden reacted to the publication of an explosive story by The Intercept on Monday, which reveals for the first time how « fortress-like » AT&T buildings located in eight major American cities have played a central role in a massive National Security Agency (NSA) spying program « that has for years monitored billions of emails, phone calls, and online chats passing across U.S. territory. »
« It’s eye-opening and ominous the extent to which this is happening right here on American soil, » Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, told The Intercept in an interview. « It puts a face on surveillance that we could never think of before in terms of actual buildings and actual facilities in our own cities, in our own backyards. »
The Intercept‘s detailed report—based on a large body of evidence that includes public records, classified NSA documents, and interviews with former AT&T employees—shows how the telecom giant has willingly helped the NSA collect the data of its own customers and those of other companies, thanks to its « unique relationships with other phone and internet providers. »
According to Intercept reporters Ryan Gallagher and Henrik Moltke, who bylined Monday’s story, eight AT&T facilities—known as « peering sites »—in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. « serve a specific function, processing AT&T customers’ data and also carrying large quantities of data from other internet providers. »
These fortress-like AT&T buildings across the U.S. are central to a secret NSA program that has monitored billions of communications, documents and sources reveal. https://t.co/YiIo0ZA8lB pic.twitter.com/q5qjl7jKqh
— The Intercept (@theintercept) June 25, 2018
« The eight locations are featured on a top-secret NSA map, which depicts U.S. facilities that the agency relies upon for one of its largest surveillance programs, code-named FAIRVIEW, » Gallagher and Moltke write. « AT&T is the only company involved in FAIRVIEW, which was first established in 1985, according to NSA documents, and involves tapping into international telecommunications cables, routers, and switches. »
The report continues:
In 2003, the NSA launched new internet mass surveillance methods, which were pioneered under the FAIRVIEW program. The methods were used by the agency to collect—within a few months—some 400 billion records about people’s internet communications and activity, the New York Timespreviously reported. FAIRVIEW was also forwarding more than one million emails every day to a « keyword selection system » at the NSA’s Fort Meade headquarters.
Central to the internet spying are eight « peering link router complex » sites, which are pinpointed on the top-secret NSA map. The locations of the sites mirror maps of AT&T’s networks, obtained by The Intercept from public records. »
Fight for the Future (FFTF), an open internet advocacy group, reacted with alarm to The Intercept‘s reporting on Monday, writing on Twitter, « AT&T has bent over backwards to help the U.S. government spy on essentially all internet traffic. »
« Giant telecom companies aren’t just « anti-consumer, » they’re actively helping authoritarian governments and pushing for policies that endanger free expression, » FFTF concluded.
Top Photo | This June 6, 2013 file photo shows the sign outside the National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md.
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