The U.S. government has apparently ordered Verizon’s business service unit to hand over its customers’ phone records. The National Security Agency is requiring the nation’s largest carrier to submit “telephony metadata” for calls between two parties in the United States and calls between the United States and a party in another country, according to The Guardian, a UK newspaper.
Telephony metadata includes the number that originated the call and the number that received it, as well as the IMSI number that identifies a mobile subscriber, and the IMEI number that identifies a device. It also includes the time and duration of a call, but not its content.
Today’s Mobile Minute:
- The order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, expires July 19. It applies to all calls placed by Verizon’s wireless and landline customers.
- The order is labeled “top secret” and states clearly that no one shall share its contents unless permitted to do so by the director of the FBI. The only exceptions are those individuals whose advice Verizon needs in order to comply with the order; attorneys in particular are named as professionals who may have been given access to the document in order to help Verizon comply.
- In other mobile news, the Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T is working with Chernin Group to mount a bid for Hulu. Hulu is the online video service owned by News Corp., Comcast and Disney. Chernin Group is run by Peter Chernin, who helped start Hulu when he worked at News Corp.
Other top stories:
Dish counters Sprint Nextel claims in letter to Clearwire
FirstNet board approves increased budget, organizational structure
FreedomPop to offer ‘free’ voice, text, data services later this year
