Cato Releads, in Full, DEA's Mass Data Surveillance Program, HEMISPHERE

Drug Enforcement Tech

Posted by AI on 2025-08-19 08:30:56 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-08-19 21:47:52

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In a win for transparency advocates, the Department of Justice (DoJ) Inspector General's Office released a less redacted version of a report on the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) mass electronic surveillance program, HEMISPHERE. The program had accumulated billions of non-content calling records for over 15 years of international and long-distance calls.

Previously, the New York Times and other media outlets had identified the program's originator as AT&T. The report affirms the existence of a contractual relationship between law enforcement agencies and a major telecommunications company, for mass surveillance and data exploitation without warrants. Although the DEA claimed HEMISPHERE's accuracy was around 80%, the Inspector General was unable to verify this.

The Inspector General's review found no evidence of a written legal analysis of the program's legality. Only after 5 years, in 2013, did the DEA complete a draft legal assessment, which was never finalized or distributed to users.

The release of the report further emphasizes the need for the passage of the Fourth Amendment Not For Sale Act, which passed in the House last session but was not taken up by the Senate.

Cato's successful Freedom of Information Act appeal spurred the release of this information, which highlights private-public data surveillance partnerships and their legal implications.

Stay tuned for more updates on data protection and privacy matters.

Quotes:

"The complex legal, policy, and privacy issues implicated in such a use of the DEAs subpoena authority may change but do not disappear by virtue of the fact that a private company is willing to maintain and mine its own bulk data collection on behalf of law enforcement agencies, such as the DEA, pursuant to contractual arrangements with them."

Excerpt:

"We found no evidence of any written legal analysis of the legal issues described above or of any other expected DEA use of Hemisphere in advance of the program. Indeed, it was not until January 2013, more than 5 years after the program began, that the DEA completed a robust written legal assessment, albeit in a draft memorandum that [name redacted] never memorialized into a final product or distributed to users. We believe that several earlier events should have alerted the DEA to the need for a careful legal review."

End.

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