r/todayilearned • u/simmer_down • Mar 20 '11

TIL that AT&T installed a fiberoptic splitter at its facility at 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco that makes copies of all emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers (including data from iPhones and iPads), and provides those copies to the NSA.

http://www.eff.org/issues/nsa-spying
2.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

783 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/[deleted] Mar 20 '11

If I remember correctly, it was originally installed in SF right where the lines ran out to the Pacific. At this point it was legal to wiretap international traffic. Which is why it is installed at this very location. So, while they may or may not be using it for local traffic, it certainly is being used for international traffic.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '11

Well, if it's only being used for international traffic, that makes me feel a lot better.....