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MAINWAY is a database maintained by the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) containing metadata for hundreds of billions of telephone calls made through the largest telephone carriers in the United States, including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.[1] [2]
The existence of this database and the NSA program that compiled it was unknown to the general public until USA Today broke the story on May 10, 2006.[1]
It is estimated that the database contains over 1.9 trillion call-detail records.[3] The records include detailed call information (caller, receiver, date/time of call, length of call, etc.) for use in traffic analysis[4] and social network analysis,[5] but do not include audio information or transcripts of the content of the phone calls.[4]
According to former NSA director Michael Hayden, the NSA sought to deploy MAINWAY prior to 9/11 in response to the Millennium Plot but did not do so because it did not comply with US law. Hayden wrote: "The answer from [the Justice Department] was clear: ' ... you can't do this.'"[6] As of June 2013, the database stores metadata for at least five years.[7] According to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist James Risen, MAINWAY was the most important of the four components that comprised the ThinThread program.[8]
The database's existence has prompted fierce objections. It is often viewed as an illegal warrantless search and violation of the pen register provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and (in some cases) the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The George W. Bush administration neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the domestic call record database. This contrasts with a related NSA controversy concerning warrantless surveillance of selected telephone calls; in that case they did confirm the existence of the program of debated legality. That program's code name was Stellar Wind.[9]
Similar programs exist or are planned in other countries, including Sweden (Titan traffic database)[10] and Great Britain (Interception Modernisation Programme).
The MAINWAY equivalent for Internet traffic is MARINA.[11]
- ^ a b Cauley, Leslie (May 11, 2006). "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 23, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2006.
- ^ Cheng, Roger (July 6, 2015). "T-Mobile was asked to turn over more customer info than its larger rivals". CNET. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
- ^ "Three Major Telecom Companies Help US Government Spy on Millions of Americans". Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on May 16, 2006. Retrieved May 15, 2006.
- ^ a b Schneier, Bruce (June 18, 2013). "Evidence that the NSA Is Storing Voice Content, Not Just Metadata". Schneier on Security. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2013. "And, by the way, I hate the term 'metadata.' What's wrong with 'traffic analysis,' which is what we've always called that sort of thing?"
- ^ Hayden, Michael V. (February 21, 2017). Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror. Penguin. ISBN 9780143109983.
- ^ "How the NSA uses your telephone records". The Week. June 6, 2013. Archived from the original on June 6, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
- ^ Risen, James (2014). Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780544341418.
- ^ "Now We Know What the Battle Was About". Newsweek. December 13, 2008. Archived from the original on July 17, 2009. Retrieved August 11, 2009.
- ^ "Network Cameras & Wireless Network Camera Systems | VideoSurveillance.com". www.videosurveillance.com. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
- ^ "Washington Post Provides New History of NSA Surveillance Programs". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on February 26, 2014. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
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