"Decoding DAS:
"Decoding DAS:
Inside the Largest Telephone Record Collection Program and Its Controversial Origins"
Background
The Data Analytical Services (DAS) Program, formerly recognized as the Hemisphere Project, stands as the most extensive telephone record collection initiative disclosed to date. Primarily financed through the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), DAS offers law enforcement personnel at local, state, and federal tiers access to over a trillion phone records belonging to AT&T customers and those whose communications traverse an AT&T switch. Distinguishing itself from the contentious NSA phone records collection effort, DAS goes beyond, encompassing location information within its purview. Government subpoenas directed at AT&T yield Call Detail Records (CDRs) dating as recently as one hour before approval and stretching back to 1987.
Key Points
No Judicial Oversight: DAS enables law enforcement agencies to requisition extensive phone records through administrative or grand jury subpoenas, circumventing the need for judicial scrutiny.
Trillions of Phone Records Collected: Historical records from EPIC and EFF reveal that Hemisphere, the precursor to DAS, accrued four billion Call Data Records daily. Presently, DAS boasts a repository exceeding a trillion records.
Location Data Tracked: DAS doesn't limit itself to call records; it includes sensitive location data. GeoTime, a 3D mapping and analysis tool, was previously employed by the DEA for scrutinizing this location data.
Sweeping Use by Law Enforcement: DAS finds application across various law enforcement echelons for both drug and non-drug-related investigations. The agencies availing the DAS program have, in the past, been kept confidential.
No Privacy Impact Assessment: The obscure funding mechanism shielding DAS from public scrutiny also exempts it from undergoing a privacy impact assessment, a standard requirement for surveillance programs. Despite EPIC's FOIA requests, there's no public record of any entity, including the DEA, conducting such an assessment for the Hemisphere Project.
Purposely Kept Secret: The government actively concealed the Hemisphere program from public awareness, instructing users never to reference it in official documents and employing parallel construction to shroud its existence.
Two-hop Searches: DAS searches not only reveal the phone records of the targeted individual but also extend to include the records of everyone communicating with the target, a practice known as two-hop searches.
Read more about the Hemisphere Project here:
Hemisphere: Law Enforcement's Secret Call Records Deal With AT&T
https://www.eff.org/cases/hemisphere
For a very long time, federal and local law enforcement agencies across the country have been involved in a substantial and covert telephone surveillance program known as "Hemisphere." First publicly disclosed by the New York Times in September 2013, this program provides police access to a database containing call records spanning decades, augmented by a sophisticated analytical system. Operated through a private-public partnership with AT&T, Hemisphere came to light amid public concerns about the NSA's collection of phone records on a massive scale. Unlike programs exposed by Edward Snowden's leaks, Hemisphere's revelation was not intentional; a citizen activist in Seattle uncovered the program when he received revealing presentations through routine public records requests.
Download: August 2023 AT&T Transparency Report
https://sustainability.att.com/reports/transparency-report
In the News: https://epic.org/sen-wyden-reveals-new-details-about-the-massive-hemisphere-surveillance-program/
Informative Resources for Navigating AT&T Data Management:
https://www.howtogeek.com/664608/why-you-shouldnt-be-using-your-isps-default-dns-server/
https://www.howtogeek.com/887360/att-sells-your-data-by-default-heres-how-to-opt-out/