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Podcasts Take Two
Verizon hands over phone records to NSA under court order
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Jun 6, 2013
Listen • 9:33
Verizon hands over phone records to NSA under court order
Yesterday the Guardian released top secret information that the National Security Administration has been collecting all of the telephone records of Verizon customers across the U.S.
A sign is posted in front of a Verizon Wireless store on January 24, 2012 in San Francisco, California. New York based Verizon reported a fourth quarter net loss of $2.02 billion compared to a profit of $2.64 billion one year ago.
A sign is posted in front of a Verizon Wireless store on January 24, 2012 in San Francisco, California. New York based Verizon reported a fourth quarter net loss of $2.02 billion compared to a profit of $2.64 billion one year ago.
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Yesterday the Guardian released top secret information that the National Security Administration has been collecting all of the telephone records of Verizon customers across the U.S.

Yesterday the Guardian released top secret information that the National Security Administration has been collecting all of the telephone metadata of Verizon customers across the U.S. Information about every phone call made between April 25 to June 6 is supposedly in the hands of the government.

That includes the numbers of the people on a call, unique identifiers, call duration and the location of the call. They report that the order continues until July 19.

James Bamford, who covers intelligence and national security issues, joins the show to explain how the government is using the records and what it means for the average person. 

Authority to access the records was reportedly granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. National security expert David Cole of Georgetown University joins the show to explain how the government got permission to access so many phone records.