CIA Paying AT&T $10 Million Annually for Call Records

The CIA is paying AT&T more than $10 million annually to access the company's international phone records, which includes calls from some Americans, The New York Times reported.

The phone company is working with the CIA through a voluntary contract, according to government officials. In the arrangement, the CIA supplies phone numbers of overseas terrorism suspects, while AT&T looks through its database and provides phone records that could help to identify foreign associates.

The database contains information not only on AT&T customers, but also on any phone call that passes through the company's network, Gawker reported via the Times.

According to officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the CIA implements privacy safeguards since the agency is prohibited from spying on average Americans. Most call records provided by AT&T are foreign-to-foreign calls, but when one end of the call is from someone in the United States, the American is not identified and part of the phone number is masked.

Despite masking part of the phone number, the uncensored data could still be requested by the FBI, according to the Times. The bureau handles domestic investigations but can share the uncensored data with the CIA, officials said.

CIA spokesman Dean Boyd wouldn't confirm the AT&T collaboration, only saying the agency's intelligence activities are lawful and overseen with vigilance.

"The CIA protects the nation and upholds privacy rights of Americans by ensuring that its intelligence collection activities are focused on acquiring foreign intelligence and counterintelligence in accordance with U.S. laws," he said. "The CIA is expressly forbidden from undertaking intelligence collection activities inside the United States 'for the purpose of acquiring information concerning the domestic activities of U.S. persons,' and the CIA does not do so."

Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, also declined to confirm the program.

"We value our customers' privacy and work hard to protect it by ensuring compliance with the law in all respects. We do not comment on questions concerning national security," he told the Times.