AT&T Worked With NSA to Retrieve Information about Billions of Emails: Report

According to a report by the New York Times and ProPublica, AT&T has worked for several decades in collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA) to retrieve information about billions of emails.

The report asserted that AT&T gave the NSA access to the information regarding the mails that were sent through its network. The company even allowed the agency to monitor communications at the United Nations.

The New York Times and ProPublica citing NSA documents obtained from former agency contractor Edward Snowden said in its article that AT&T provided the information under 'legal rules'.

The report says it has already been known that some telecom and other tech companies were enlisted by the NSA in efforts to collect the information from emails. The documents showed that AT&T's role with the NSA was far more extensive and intimate than other companies.

AT&T, in response to CNNMoney's request for comment, affirmed that it only provides information to investigative agencies through a court order or any other mandatory process, unless a person's life is in danger and time is of the essence.

The documents spanning from 2003 to 2013, details how AT&T helped the NSA before Snowden's massive leak of classified documents which set off a global debate about how much personal information governments should be able to collect.

As per the article, the documents actually do not name AT&T but used code names that the Times and Pro Publica concluded referred to the company.