Senator Ron Wyden recently informed his fellow senators that three leading U.S. cellphone carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, failed to notify lawmakers about government surveillance requests. In a letter to his colleagues, Wyden explained that these notifications were crucial. As his staff discovered, when these aren’t provided privacy is undermined and the independence of the legislative branch is jeopardized.
Wyden has been doing the yeoman’s work of trying to educate members of congress about surveillance activities that could affect them. Just last month, he revealed a major problem with these efforts. What he found with his investigation was much more surprising. None of these carriers had established practices to inform lawmakers when faced with legal requests to monitor their devices. This apparent failure to communicate creates serious doubt about the degree of government control by the Fourth Estate and the danger to the independence of Congress itself.
In his letter, Wyden called on his Senate colleagues to do the right thing. He urged them to move to carriers that offer notification services for surveillance requests. Adding to concerns, he said, one of those carriers admitted to sharing congressional data with law enforcement. They accomplished this without advance notice to the Senate.
“Executive branch surveillance poses a significant threat to the Senate’s independence and the foundational principle of separation of powers.” – Sen. Ron Wyden
This recent development is reminiscent of history. Between 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration received without notice or consent detailed logs of phone calls and text messages from congressional staffers, and even two sitting members of the House of Representatives. Importantly, the surveillance targeted Adam Schiff, who at the time was the ranking Democrat and a frequent critic of Trump on the House Intelligence Committee. An ongoing Judicial Watch-related Federal Inspector General’s report had noticed hidden surveillance requests. This shocking discovery was enough to spur Congress into passing protections for Senate data stored by outside companies in 2020.
In response to these shocking disclosures, the Senate Sergeant at Arms intervened. In response, they amended their contracts to require phone carriers to notify them of any surveillance requests. We support this move in order to improve transparency and protect the privacy of legislators and their staff.
Ahmed Khattak, a spokesperson for US Mobile, confirmed that prior to Senator Wyden’s inquiry, the company did not have a formal customer notification policy concerning surveillance requests. He explained that their current policy indeed allows notifications whenever they are legally allowed. This holds for as long as they are not limited by injunctive relief or other legal constraints.
“Our current policy is to notify customers of subpoenas or legal demands for information whenever we are legally permitted to do so and when the request is not subject to a court order, statutory gag provision, or other legal restriction on disclosure.” – Ahmed Khattak
Khattak reassured that to his knowledge, US Mobile has not received any surveillance requests specifically targeting the phones of senators or their staff members.
Keith Chu, another spokesman for the industry, suggested that companies wouldn’t want to risk flooding Senator Wyden’s office with answers to questions. He reiterated the need for transparency but a need to ease compliance with current legal requirements.
“We don’t want to discourage companies from responding to Sen. Wyden’s questions.” – Keith Chu
Alex Byers, who now represents a third carrier, indeed, testified to his company doing its part. These responsibilities are defined by the Senate Sergeant at Arms.
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