Bulk Telephony Metadata Program

As Judge Leon explains, under the Bulk Telephony Metadata Program, the NSA collects “telephony metadata” or call record information such as phone numbers dialed and received, and the time and duration of calls.  It does not collect “any information about the content of those calls, or the names, addresses, or financial information of any party to the calls.”  Whether location information is, or has been collected under this or any previous program is an open question.  The NSA obtains this information from phone companies, including Verizon and AT&T, pursuant to orders issued by the FISC, a court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and comprised of federal district judges that reviews applications for warrants related to national security surveillance.  Then, the NSA, “[t]hrough targeted computerized searches of those metadata records, . . . tries to discern connections between terrorist organizations and previously unknown terrorist operatives located in the United States.”