International phones: The program contains call detail records on international phone numbers that place calls through an AT&T switch or roam on the AT&T network.Location Information: Hemisphere allows law enforcement access to temporary roaming location data on individuals when they make and receive calls.Similarly, armed with a currently used phone number, investigators can determine whether there are other phone numbers used by that person or an associate with similar calling patterns. Dropped and additional phones: Using sophisticated computer algorithms, analysts can run an abandoned phone number through the database to determine a person’s new phone number.The Hemisphere program boasts of several “unique” features: The AT&T employees who help run the Hemisphere program are housed within law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, Houston, and Atlanta and have their salaries paid by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) through its High Intensity Drug Traffic Areas (HIDTA) program. That includes records dating as far back as 1987, which is much further back than the records most telcos store. Official government presentations estimate 4 billion call detail records populate the Hemisphere database on a daily basis. The database has records concerning local, long distance, cellular, and international calls. Because other providers use AT&T “switches” for their calls, the database contains call detail records regardless of carrier. More specifically, Hemisphere has access to telecommunication “switches” operated by AT&T that guide telephone calls. Through the Hemisphere program, AT&T assists federal and local law enforcement in accessing and analyzing its massive database of call detail records (CDRs)-information on phone numbers dialed and received, as well as the time, date, and length of call and in some instances location information. In late 2018, we closed the case having freed up hundreds of pages of documents and unmasked redactions across dozens of emails and presentations. One lawsuit was against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), while the other was against the California State Attorney General.
We filed two separate lawsuits to force law enforcement agencies to release important information that would contribute to the public debate about the efficacy and legitimacy of the program. In July 2015, EFF had enough with the secrecy. The results have been frustrating, with various agencies providing highly and inconsistently redacted documents in what seems to be an attempt to further hide information from the public. However, Hemisphere wasn’t a program revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks, but rather its exposure was pure serendipity: a citizen activist in Seattle discovered the program when shocking presentations outlining the program were provided to him in response to regular old public records requests.īut these documents only painted a partial portrait of the program, and since the New York Times’ initial reporting in 2013, EFF has filed its own Freedom of Information Act and state-level public records requests to learn more. “Hemisphere” came to light amidst the public uproar over revelations that the NSA had been collecting phone records on millions of innocent people. The program involves a private-public partnership with AT&T. For almost 10 years, federal and local law enforcement agencies across the country have engaged in a massive and secretive telephone surveillance program known as “Hemisphere.” Publicly disclosed for the first time in September 2013 by the New York Times, the Hemisphere program provides police access to a database containing call records going back decades, combined with a sophisticated analytical system.
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