Senator Ron Wyden criticized major wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile for failing to notify lawmakers about government surveillance requests, which is against their Senate contracts. His letter highlighted how these carriers kept Senators uninformed until recently, leading to potential violations. Although T-Mobile pledged to notify Senators about future requests related to their personal phones, issues remain for campaign lines. Other companies like Google Fi Wireless, US Mobile, and Cape have already implemented policies for such notifications, making the current failures particularly notable.
An investigation by my staff revealed that until recently, Senators have been kept in the dark about executive branch surveillance of Senate phones, because the three major phone carriers - AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile - failed to establish systems to notify offices about surveillance requests, as required by their Senate contracts.
While now rectified for Senate-funded lines, significant gaps remain, especially for the campaign and personal phones used by most Senators.
Following Wyden's investigation, T-Mobile has pledged to alert senators about surveillance requests targeting their campaign and personal phone lines, but only if those lines are flagged by the Senate Sergeant at Arms.
Three other carriers, Google Fi Wireless, US Mobile, and Cape, already have policies in place to notify any customer about these types of government demands.
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