The DEA's Phone Call Database is Bigger Than The NSA's

Hemisphere is not classified - but it was secret for nearly five years. It is run by the Drug Enforcement Administration

DEA Phone Call Database Bigger Than NSA's -- NBC

The federal government has access to a massive database of 25 years of AT&T phone data, NBC News has confirmed, as part of a secret program in which phone company employees work alongside local and federal law enforcement agents to track the phone calls of suspected drug dealers.

As first reported by the New York Times, the Hemisphere Project is at least six years old and has access to the data from every call coming through an AT&T switchboard back to 1987. The pool grows by billions of calls a day, includes information on the location of callers, and is larger than the controversial database maintained by the NSA, which goes back five years.

As part of the Hemisphere program, the government is currently paying AT&T to embed a handful of phone company employees with drug task forces of local police and DEA agents in Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles.

Read more ....

More News On The DEA's Phone Database

REVEALED: Secret program gives federal agents nearly instant access to BILLIONS of AT&T phone records without a court order -- Daily Mail
U.S. drug agents mine AT&T phone records dating back decades -- UPI
Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s -- New York Times
U.S. drug agents grab more data than NSA; ‘profound privacy concerns,’ ACLU says -- Washington Times
US drug agency partners with AT&T for access to 'vast database' of call records -- The Guardian
Report: Anti-drug agents involved in phone data spying -- USA Today
DEA Program Puts Phone Company Inside Government Offices -- ABC News
Drug agents reportedly have access to bigger phone database than NSA's -- FOX News
The DEA Pays AT&T for Access to 26 Years of Phone Records -- Atlantic Wire
DEA supplied with access to vast database of AT&T phone records -- CNET
AT&T turns drug informant, handing feds 26 years of phone records -- The Verge
DEA Has Access to Billions of AT&T Phone Call Records -- Mashable