With a Single Wiretap Order, US Authorities Listened In on 3.3 Million Phone Calls (zdnet.com)

US authorities intercepted and recorded millions of phone calls last year under a single wiretap order, authorized as part of a narcotics investigation, ZDNet's Zack Whittaker reports. From the article: The wiretap order authorized an unknown government agency to carry out real-time intercepts of 3.29 million cell phone conversations over a two-month period at some point during 2016, after the order was applied for in late 2015. The order was signed to help authorities track 26 individuals suspected of involvement with illegal drug and narcotic-related activities in Pennsylvania. The wiretap cost the authorities $335,000 to conduct and led to a dozen arrests. But the authorities noted that the surveillance effort led to no incriminating intercepts, and none of the handful of those arrested have been brought to trial or convicted.

Comments

Re:skeptical of the maths

[Hank the Lion]

3 or 4 hops.
Suspect calls pizza delivery service (1 hop)
Now everyone who has called that pizza delivery service is under surveillance _as only the second hop_.
In this way, 3.3 million people are easily reached from 4 hops from people under surveillance.
I doubt that the ones signing the legislation allowing 4 hops were aware of this.
If they were, all the worse.