Contents of The Database
According to the article, the database is "the largest database ever assembled in the world", and contains call-detail records (CDRs) for all phone calls, domestic and international. A call-detail record consists of the phone numbers of the callers and recipients along with time and duration of the call. While the database does not contain specific names or addresses, that information is widely available from non-classified sources.
According to the research group TeleGeography, AT&T (including the former SBC), Verizon, and BellSouth connected nearly 500 billion telephone calls in 2005 and nearly 2 trillion calls since late 2001. It is reported that all four companies were paid to provide the information to the NSA.
Read more about this topic: NSA Call Database
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