Last Thursday, USA TODAY published a story saying that AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have been providing customer telephone call detail records to the National Security Agency, an allegation which BellSouth and Verizon have vigorously denied. Verizon even went so far as to say that it does not record local telephone calls, a claim I personally know to be false.
This is how telephone companies record the details of your calls, including local calls. In this case study, I use BellSouth as an example, though I have verified that AT&T, Verizon and Qwest record calls in a substantially similar manner (though Qwest does not seem to record unmetered local calls). Where there are significant differences, I note them.
“Usage for direct dialed Flat Rate [local] calls will be recorded in all BellSouth switches,” according to BellSouth documents obtained by Homeland Stupidity. All calls are recorded as a matter of course, regardless of the customer’s calling plan. The call detail records include the following information:
A collection system called Electronic Toll Collection System (ETCS) queries each BellSouth switch to download call detail records. This includes all calls made through the switch, whether local, local toll, long distance, international, and special calls such as *69, directory assistance, operator assisted calls, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
ETCS forwards all of the switch records to the first billing system, known as ALPHA. This system screens each record to make sure it is valid and doesn’t contain any errors. For each valid record, ALPHA then determines who the record should be sent to.
For instance, for resold telephone lines owned by competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC), all of the records for those telephone lines are sent to that CLEC and included in the Optional Daily Usage File and Enhanced Optional Daily Usage File sent to CLECs who subscribe to these usage files. For lines owned by BellSouth, the records stay within the company and are forwarded to its internal billing systems.
The ODUF files include all calls made over the network, except for “7 or 10 digit direct dialed” local calls, according to BellSouth documents obtained by Homeland Stupidity. The EODUF includes these local calls.
It is from ALPHA that all call detail records for any call originating within the BellSouth network can be forwarded to government agencies. BellSouth is capable of delivering call detail records over leased lines (Network Data Mover), a secure FTP site, or dial-up or VPN connection directly into BellSouth’s network. Connections into BellSouth require a BellSouth-issued SecurID card for access.
Verizon, AT&T and Qwest call these records the Daily Usage File (DUF). Verizon and AT&T do not differentiate between DUF files containing local calls and files which do not, as BellSouth does. (BellSouth charges more for DUF files containing local calls, which is why they differentiate.)
Verizon and AT&T provide substantially similar means of access to the DUF files as BellSouth, including NDM and secure FTP site. All of the companies allow access through CONNECT:Direct. Qwest also allows access to the DUF files through its own secure Web site requiring a Qwest-issued SSL client certificate to access. Verizon and BellSouth will also deliver the files on magnetic tape via courier.
All of the phone companies deliver these files each business day, except holidays, with a three business day turnaround time. Verizon retains the files for 45 days, BellSouth retains the files for 90 days, and Qwest retains the files for 180 days. It’s unclear how long AT&T retains the files, though an AT&T document obtained by Homeland Stupidity indicates that it is most likely 60 days.
Unlike BellSouth, Verizon and AT&T, Qwest does not record local telephone calls unless they are operator assisted, e.g. billed collect or third party, or the telephone subscriber has measured local service instead of flat-rate local service.
I have personally viewed Daily Usage Files transmitted by Verizon and AT&T and seen that they contain unrated local calls. I have also viewed Enhanced Optional Daily Usage Files transmitted by BellSouth and seen that they contain unrated local calls. I have viewed Daily Usage Files transmitted by Qwest and seen that they do not contain unrated local calls.
Clarification: Verizon’s wireline business is comprised of two distinct operating units, known as Verizon East and Verizon West. Verizon East is comprised of the mid-Atlantic and New England territories gained from the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, while Verizon West is comprised of the territories gained from the acquisition of GTE, even those in East Coast states such as Virginia and Florida. (Virginia contains a mix of Verizon East and Verizon West service areas.)
While both Verizon East and Verizon West collect call detail records and produce daily usage files as described in this article, I have not seen daily usage files for Verizon West and it is unclear whether Verizon West collects call detail records for direct-dialed local calls.
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May 17, 2006
Verizon: We didn’t do it - Homeland Stupidity
May 19, 2006
BellSouth asks USA TODAY for retraction of NSA story - Homeland Stupidity
emphatic
May 21, 2006
What does this mean for VOIP and other types of internet calls? Is any call secure?
Michael Hampton
May 21, 2006
Secure from whom? If your threat assessment includes government surveillance as a potential threat, you should not assume any type of voice call is secure at this point.
emphatic
May 21, 2006
I don’t view government surveillance as a personal threat. The technological vectors for information gathering, for an organization as large as the us goverment, are so numerous that I generally live my life like its 1984 anyway. I do think that a general inability to have a private, ‘electronic’ conversation is a danger to the ideals set forth by the constitution. Surely our government was structured as a system of checks and balances for a reason. To assume any branch or division of any government will control or restrain their own actions, for any altruistic reasons, has shown itself, historically, to be a poor assumption.
Michael Hampton
May 21, 2006
The general method for assessing a threat is first to determine who it is that poses the threat. And you determine their intentions, or likely intentions. Then you determine their capabilities. Finally, if warranted, you neutralize their capabilities, or if that is infeasible, you alter your tactics to work around their capabilities.
If that sounds vaguely military to you, there’s a good reason. :)
emphatic
May 21, 2006
Suppose intentions are unclear, though. Is it then legitimate to persue a worst case scenario doctrine? It seems that this is the logic which has the US embedded in Iraq and looking to get involved with Iran, while completely ignoring the question of ‘capability’. Not that I disagree with your basic point, but it seems, more and more often, that common modes of thought are being twisted, co-opted, so that, for instance, the patriotic becomes unpatriotic, at the whim of the talking heads.
PS – Militaristic, yes, but I prefer machine-like. Which in some cases is the same thing.
Michael Hampton
May 21, 2006
Well, that may be, but you’re far from the topic, and even far from your original question. :)
emphatic
May 22, 2006
I may have strayed from my original question, but the topic is right on. The only way the gov’t gets away with the ‘stupidity‘ your site details is by fear mongering or more specifically, intimating a ‘threat’ where one doesn’t actually exist. My last point was simply that as a part of that fear mongering, those who debunk supposed threats are generally ‘labeled’, unfairly and illogically. I thought it was obvious that the gov’t is using the fear of terrorism to deflect criticism of its trampling of the constitution.
PS – Maybe you should post a note to restrict comments to the obvious points of your various posts. To say it is ‘off topic’ to discuss how a post on your site relates to what is going on militarily vis-a-vis US doctrine seems a little naive. Thanks for your time anyway. Sorry to have bothered, though.
Michael Hampton
May 22, 2006
Hm, well, it’s a long stretch from the inner workings of the telephone companies to the government’s terrorizing its people, especially since that’s a topic I’ve brought up repeatedly in the past, and certainly will again. Where were your comments then? :)
It also confuses other people who, perhaps, were expecting further discussion of the inner workings of the telephone companies, and instead got comments on U.S. foreign policy. It certainly confused me.
And this leaves me back at your original question, way back in the first comment. From whom are you trying to secure your phone calls? If government surveillance doesn’t figure into your threat assessment, as you said, then what you’re concerned about remains unclear.
Jul 01, 2006
BellSouth, Verizon not involved in NSA phone record database - Homeland Stupidity
BK
Jun 25, 2007
From this review of the situation, it seems on the east coast where I live, when I dial the guy up the street using my home telephone number… it’s possible the call (number) is recorded. I’m wondering what if someone calls my house, dosen’t get an answer, and hangs up. My caller ID says someone called but I don’t have an answering machine so there was no connect. I wonder if these are also recorded.
Also I wonder if it’s true they’re held for 60 days. I mean, if the NSA or FBI wants to know something, they’d have to act fast, I don’t think 60 days sounds right. Because they’ve used similar records after investigating a person for terrorism related matters they’ve discovered a year or so after. How’d they investigate their phone records over a year later? There must be some form of backup or archive that’s held for more than 60 days.