The National Security Agency (NSA) may be spying on you from a building right in the neighborhood. According to a lengthy piece in The Intercept, an AT&T building in Old East Dallas is one in a series of locations where the telecommunications company is funneling data so that the NSA can spy on the area.
The report says AT&T facilities in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. are all part of the program and are uniquely coded on AT&T’s internal mapping. They are part of a program on surveillance launched by the NSA in 2003.
Equipment transports massive amounts of worldwide internet traffic data that allows the agency to survey emails, phone calls and online chats across the country. The Intercept analyzed classified NSA documents, public records and interviews with former AT&T employees to uncover the spying.
It involves more than just AT&T customers. Due to AT&T’s massive infrastructure and communication between networks, the NSA is able to tap into data from other providers as well.
The AT&T building at 4211 Bryan Street in Old East Dallas is one of the facilities where this happens, according to the story, which calls it “a cube-like building with narrow windows and large vents on its exterior.”
The Intercept says it is one of the “critical parts of one of the world’s most powerful electronic eavesdropping systems, hidden in plain sight.”
Read the whole story here.
