Most, if not all, phone numbers and other data associated with calls carried by major US phone companies 鈥� but not the contents of the call itself 鈥� are being collected, including those of many Americans, leaked documents indicate. In April, a subsidiary of Verizon was ordered to send to the National Security Agency (NSA) 鈥渙n an ongoing daily basis鈥� through July the 鈥渢elephony metadata鈥� or communications logs 鈥渂etween the United States and abroad鈥� or 鈥渨holly within the United States, including local telephone calls,鈥� according to a four-page 鈥渢op secret鈥� order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court signed by a federal judge. The document was leaked to The Guardian, a London newspaper that received the leaked document, and to The Washington Post.
Under a separate program called PRISM, major chunks of social media data ascribed to foreign users are being shared with the US government by Internet companies, although it鈥檚 not clear how much or how tightly circumscribed that collection is.
