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AT&T gave the US government access to 'billions' of customer emails

nsa building headquarters
Headquarters of the NSA at Fort Meade, Maryland. Digital Trends

New documents reveal that the NSA has had a "unique and especially productive" relationship with AT&T, the New York Times reports.

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From 2003 to 2013, AT&T gave the NSA access to "billions of emails," the Times says, and even helped wiretap all of the Internet communications at the United Nations.  The NSA documents characterize the relationship as being "highly collaborative."

Most major US telecommunications companies have aided the NSA in the past.

NSA surveillance equipment has been installed in at least 17 AT&T Internet hubs in the U.S., "far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon," the Times reports. It's unclear where AT&T and the NSA stand today, as the documents cover a span of time that ended two years ago.

These revelations, reported by the Times and ProPublica on Saturday, are based on information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Read the full New York Times report here.

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AT&T spokesperson Brad Burns provided the following statement to Tech Insider Saturday afternoon:

“We do not provide information to any investigating authorities without a court order or other mandatory process other than if a person’s life is in danger and time is of the essence. For example, in a kidnapping situation we could provide help tracking down called numbers to assist law enforcement.”

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