Sen Ron Weden Sent a letter For fellow senators on Wednesday, revealing that three major US cellphone careers do not have the conditions to inform lawmakers about government surveillance requests, yet a contract is needed.
In this letter, Weden, a Democrat and long-time member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said his staff investigations revealed that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon were not notified of their phone, including senators of legal requests, on their phone. According to the letter, the companies have “indicated that they are now providing such notice.”
Was a polytico First report to report Weden’s letter.
Wedin’s letter came in the context of a report by the Inspector General last year, which Disclosure In 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration secretly obtained the calls and text messages of 43 Congress staff and two serving households, from which GGG orders were imposed on the phone companies receiving applications. There were secret monitoring requests The first time revealed in 2021 To target Adam Schif, who was then a senior Democrat in the House Intelligence Committee.
Weden wrote in his letter, “The Executive Branch is a significant threat to the basic principle of Senate independence and separation from powers.” “If the law enforcement officials, whether they are at the federal, state, or even locally, they can secretly obtain the location of senators or call the date, our ability to perform our constitutional duties is in serious danger.”
AT&T spokesman Alex Bayers told Tech Crunch in a statement, “We are complying with the Senate Sergeant in weapons, and that the phone company has not received any legal demand for the Senate offices under the current agreement, which began last June. “
When asked if AT&T had received legal demands before the new deal, the biers did not respond.
Weden said in the letter that an unidentified carrier confirmed that it had turned the Senate data to law enforcement agencies without informing the Senate. “When the Tech Crunch arrived, Weden’s spokesman Keith Chu said the reason was,” We don’t want to discourage companies from answering San Weden’s questions. ”
Verizon and T Mobile did not respond to a comment.
This letter is mentioned in the carrier Google FI, US Mobile, and also Cellular startup capAll of whom have policies, “Whenever they are allowed to do so, inform all users about government demands.” The US Mobile and Cape adopted a policy after reaching the Wedin’s office.
Chu told Tech Crunch that the Senate “has no deal with a small career.”
Ahmed Khattak, the founder and CEO of the US mobile, confirmed with the Tech Crunch that the company does not have a formal customer notification policy on Senator Widen’s inquiry before the inquiry. “
Khattak said, “Our current policy is that whenever we are allowed to do so legally and when the application is not subject to a judicial order, legal gig clause, or other legal ban on revelation,” for information is to inform consumers or consumers of legal demands. “” According to our best knowledge, US mobiles have not received any surveillance request to target senators or their staff phone. “
Cape CEO John Doll pointed to the company Privacy PolicyWhich states that Cape responds to legal requests but “will inform its customers about the recovery of any legal process for disclosure of their accounts, thus you will have the opportunity to challenge the request,” unless it is prohibited to do so legally. The privacy policy states that “To date, Cape has not received any request for consumer data, which has an unauthorized responsibility.”
Google did not respond to a comment.
As according to the Wedin’s letter, the Congress has updated its contracts in the Arms after imposing reservations in 2020 for the Senate data for third -party companies, to send information on surveillance requests for the need for phone careers.
Weden said his staff discovered that “these are not important information.”
None of these protection applies to phones that are not officially issued to the Senate, such as the campaign or personal phone of senators and their staff. In the letter, Weden encouraged his Senate colleagues to turn into a career, which now provides information.
Cape John Doyle’s Comments Refreshing and Correcting the Title of American Mobile Founder.