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US Started Keeping Secret Records of International Telephone Calls In 1992
schwit1 writes Starting in 1992, the Justice Department amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries. The now-discontinued operation, carried out by the DEA's intelligence arm, was the government's first known effort to gather data on Americans in bulk, sweeping up records of telephone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens regardless of whether they were suspected of a crime. It was a model for the massive phone surveillance system the NSA launched to identify terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks. That dragnet drew sharp criticism that the government had intruded too deeply into Americans' privacy after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked it to the news media two years ago. More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials described the details of the Justice Department operation to USA TODAY. Most did so on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence program, part of which remains classified. The operation had 'been approved at the highest levels of Federal law enforcement authority,' including then-Attorney General Janet Reno and her deputy, Eric Holder.
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but likely the problem was due to lobbying efforts of companies that are anti open source. Anyone remember NSA Linux (now SELinux)? It was released and soon thereafter the goverment started backpeddling in the glare of strong corporate lobbying efforts, and decided that they wouldn't release things under the GPL without serious consideration in the future. One company in particular, lobbyied heavily to stop this sort of action from the NSA, because it inhibited them from selling their 'hardened' software.
To give you an idea of the power those at NSA already have. I was walking home a couple of months ago. Two policeman pulled over and arrested me. The reason? I was wearing similar clothes to a burglar. Apparently fawn is a very unusual colour for a suit (it was bought from Marks & Spencer so yeah really rare). I was locked up. Because I had been arrested, the police are allowed to search my home **without a warrant**! My wife was in the bath, heard a noise and discovered 3 policeman in our hallway. This was the first she'd heard of my arrest.