AT&T Caught Working with NSA to Spy on ‘Every Single Citizen’
he Intercept has highlighted eight AT&T facilities across the US
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The National Security Agency (NSA) are now using internet data processing centers run by telecommunications powerhouse AT&T in order to spy on American citizens according to a new investigation.
The Intercept has highlighted eight AT&T facilities across the US which are allegedly NSA 'spy hubs' being used by the surveillance agency to monitor internet users' emails, social media posts, and even internet browsing.
Known as peering' facilities, the center's processes data from both AT&T customers and those who use other internet providers, but also other telecoms companies from Sweden, India, Germany, and Italy.
Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center said:
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'It's eye-opening and ominous the extent to which this is happening right here on American soil,'
'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.'
According to The DailyMail: All eight buildings, in cities such as Los Angeles, NYC, Seattle and Washington DC, have several things in common, as well as being AT&T facilities.
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They are tall and imposing structures with few or blacked out windows, and - either seemingly or confirmed to be - built to withstand a nuclear attack.
The buildings are located on 10 South Canal Street in Chicago, 1122 3rd Avenue in Seattle, 811 10th Avenue in New York City, 30 E Street Southwest in Washington DC, 51 Peachtree Center Avenue in Atlanta, 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco, 4211 Bryan Street in Dallas and 420 South Grand Avenue in Los Angeles.
By tapping into wires in these 'peering' facilities, the NSA can collect 'not only AT&T's data, they get all the data that's interchanged between AT&T's network and other companies,' according to Mark Klein, a former AT&T technician who worked with the company for 22 years, told The Intercept.
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'The peering links, by the nature of the connections, are liable to carry everybody's traffic at one point or another during the day, or the week, or the year,' he added.
The Intercept interviewed several former AT&T employees who confirmed the locations of the eight 'peering sites' used by the NSA.
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The NSA would neither confirm nor deny the claims, while AT&T told The Intercept that they were required by law to provide the authorities with information to certain extents.
The telecoms giant's close relationship with the NSA was first revealed by the New York Times in 2015, thanks to documents leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
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The company helped the spy agency in a broad range of classified activities, the documents revealed.
They describe how the NSA's working relationship with AT&T had enabled the agency to conduct surveillance, under various legal rules, of international and foreign-to-foreign internet communications that passed through network hubs in the United States.
