With one and only warrant which was approved in 2016 as part of an investigation for drugs Unnamed US federal authorities monitored and recorded millions of phone calls.
The command for the telephone monitoring εξουσιοδότησε μια άγνωστη κυβερνητική υπηρεσία της Αμερικής να διεξάγει καταγραφές σε πραγματικό χρόνο 3,29 εκατομμυρίων συνομιλιών κινητής τηλεφωνίας σε περίοδο δύο μηνών κατά τη duration of 2016, after an application was submitted at the end of 2015.
The warrant was signed to help the authorities attend 26 people suspected of drug trafficking in Pennsylvania.
The final amount spent on phone calls reached 335.000 dollars and led to twelve arrests.
However, none of the arrestees were convicted. The revelation was buried in the US court's annual report, published earlier this week.
"The federal wiretapping occurred during a drug investigation in the Middle District of Pennsylvania and resulted in the monitoring of 3.292.385 telephone conversations or messages over a 60-day period," the report said.
The details of the case remain unknown.
But the above news makes it clear that telephone tapping continues to exist and is carried out with great ease in mass using only one warrant.
What we learned from Snowden leaks;
Ο Albert Gidari, πρώην δικηγόρος για την προστασία της ιδιωτικής ζωής, ο οποίος αυτή τη στιγμή υπηρετεί σαν διευθυντής στο Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, επέκρινε την έρευνα.
"They spent a fortune watching 26 people, they recorded three million conversations and obviously nothing came out," Gidari said.
"I would love to see the possible affidavit for this and I wonder what the court thought."
"I am not surprised by the Results because, on average, a very low percentage of conversations incriminate and a very small percentage lead to a conviction,” he added.