They have been doing this for years. I personally know that in 1995 under the War on Drugs Federal authorities were tracking telephone calls from certain land line phone numbers from selected areas (back then cell phones were not that big and land lines were easier to track). They would link numbers called to varies countries by certain phones. They were no warrants as it was and still is legal. They do not need warrants for much of this communication and never have.
Oh and how do I know about this - we sold them the technology and we also designed and installed their fiber optic networks at Johnston, PA where they had HQ for the War on Drugs.
Another thing we did is monitor all analog cell phone conversations throughout Europe and the middle east from Ireland. Analog cell phone use was prevalent there as it was much easier than getting a land line. We would listen in on people's conversation with cray super computers as we had the technology (voice to text) way back then and then filter that before an actual human needed to listen. It is harder now with digital as we need to now tap into the cell providers and foreign owners tend to look down on that. BUT here's the good news Verizon and ATT welcomed our government in to do exactly that when it was illegal to spy on US citizens under the Bush regime. Sprint told them to pound sand and that's why I use sprint. Who do you use?
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