Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related Records: Legal Authorities

Abstract

Recent media disclosures regarding an alleged National Security Agency (NSA) program designed to collect and analyze information on telephone calling patterns within the United States have raised interest in the means by which the Government may collect such information. The factual information available in the public domain with respect to any such alleged program is limited and, in some instances, inconsistent, and the application, if at all, of any possibly relevant statutory provisions to any such program is likely to be a fact-specific inquiry. It is possible that any information provided to the NSA from the telephone service providers was provided in response to a request for information, not founded on a statutory basis. If this were the case, such a request would not necessarily be limited by the statutory structures discussed below, but in some instances, depending upon the facts involved, might expose the telephone companies to some civil remedies or criminal sanctions. In addition, a request not founded upon a statutory scheme, would appear to lack a means of compelling production of the information requested. This would seem to be consistent with the statement in the "USA Today" article that one of the companies refused to comply with NSA's request for calling detail records, while at least one other company appears to have complied. This report will summarize statutory authorities regarding access by the Government, for either foreign intelligence or law enforcement purposes, to information related to telephone calling patterns or practices. Where pertinent, the authors also will discuss statutory prohibitions against accessing or disclosing such information, along with relevant exceptions to those prohibitions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 17, 2006
Accession Number
ADA450736

Entities

People

  • Brian T. Yeh
  • Elizabeth B. Bazan
  • Gina M. Stevens

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Attorneys
  • Commerce
  • Communication Systems
  • Congress
  • Criminal Investigations
  • Criminals
  • Foreign Intelligence
  • Governments
  • House Of Representatives
  • Law
  • Law Enforcement
  • National Security
  • Security
  • Supreme Court
  • Telephone Systems
  • Terrorism
  • United States

Readers

  • Geospatial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Analytics
  • Government and Public Administration Law.