WASHINGTON—T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless said they did not participate in a data-mining operation run by the National Security Agency that collects phone records and looks for trends that would indicate terrorist activities.
The NSA phone-records operation, first reported by USA Today Thursday, comes on the heels of revelations that telecommunications customer call records are being sold over the Internet. Telcos, especially mobile-phone carriers, spent the winter assuring the public, federal regulators and Capitol Hill that they do protect customer call records and that those who pretext—pretending to be a customer to obtain call records—should be the targets of any reforms.
Unlike the customer call records scandal, which erupted after a CBS Evening News report in January, the NSA program appears to only concern telephone numbers and not the associated names and addresses, and the wireless location when the call was made or received. However, many critics complained that crosschecking the phone numbers with other publicly available databases is easy. It is unclear whether the NSA database makes use of these other publicly available resources.
USA Today said Verizon Communications Inc. was involved in the program but Debra Lewis, spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless, said the wireless carrier is not involved.
T-Mobile USA, which is owned by German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom AG, said it is not participating.
“T-Mobile is not a participant in any NSA program for warrantless surveillance and acquisition of call records, and T-Mobile has not provided any such access to communications or customer records,” said Peter Dobrow, T-Mobile USA spokesman.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Sprint Nextel Corp. both declined comment but stressed their commitment to customer privacy.
Cingular is owned by AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. Both of these companies were mentioned by USA Today as participants in the program. The only Bell company to not participate is Qwest Communications International Inc. Qwest does not have its own wireless licenses but resells wireless service using Sprint Nextel CDMA network in Qwest’s 14-state territory.
Capitol Hill was not pleased about the report of the NSA program. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he plans to hold a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, with the telephone companies as the star witnesses.
The revelation of another NSA domestic spying program could complicate matters for General Michael Hayden who next week is scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for his confirmation hearing to be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Hayden led the NSA from 1999 to 2005. The data mining is believed to have started in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Hayden is also considered the architect of another program where the NSA listens into phone calls of Americans with suspected terrorist ties without first obtaining a warrant. This wiretap program was reported by the New York Times in December. Recently, the Times won a Pulitzer Prize for the story, which it held for more than a year at the White House’s request.
