14 DAY TRIAL // A newly surfaced internal memo of the US Justice Department shows exactly how long telecoms companies store customer data. All the major players of the industry are mentioned and now everyone can find out.
The document, provided by Wired, is a collection of data gathered by the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Justice Department and it shows exactly if and for what time periods Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and others retain things such as subscriber information, text message content, pictures and IP destination related info.
The file was made public by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina (ACLU) by using a Freedom of Information Act claim.
ACLU representatives stated for the media “People who are upset that Facebook is storing all their information should be really concerned that their cell phone is tracking them everywhere they’ve been.”
“The government has this information because it wants to engage in surveillance.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), through the voice of staff attorney Kevin Bankston revealed that “This brings cellular retention practices out of the shadows, so we can have a rational discussion about how the law needs to be changed when it comes to the privacy of our records.”
So what does the document actually reveal?
It mainly shows that most wireless services providers retain a lot of information that can be obtained by law enforcement with or without a warrant.
For instance, while Verizon stores phone detail records for a period of one year, Nextel keeps the records for almost two and Virgin Mobile for precisely two years.
Text message details can be requested by the authorities for 5 to 7 years from AT&T and for only up to 90 days from Virgin. Sprint on the other hand holds it depending on the customer's device.
More sensitive data such as text message content is not kept at all by AT&T, Sprint, Nextel or T-Mobile, but Virgin stores it for up to 90 days and the paper clearly mentioned that a search warrant is required in order to obtain it.
Since the memo was created, some changes have occurred in the companies, some of them merging with one another, but the fact remains, sensitive information is retained for certain periods of time and it can be “used against you in a court of law.”