On Nov. 20, the Condé Nast technology magazine, WIRED, published a report on the leaked documents showing how the police in the United States track the phones of civilians without their consent. The analysis concludes that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) works in collaboration with telecom company AT&T to track the phone records of people who are not suspected of any crime. The secretive program, Data Analytical Services, uses a technology called chain analysis, which allows for the simultaneous tracking of many connected devices and has been used by federal, state and local law enforcement in the States for over a decade. The documents also show that the White House has contributed over $6 million to the program.

The information was made public after Senator Ron Wyden submitted a letter to the DOJ with concerns about the program's legality. WIRED obtained access to this letter, which can be viewed at the end of their report. The controversy has sparked new debates on privacy legislation and its implementation.

The program is an adapted version of a previous surveillance program called Hemisphere. This is a separate program from the one disclosed by former CIA operative Edward Snowden in 2013.