US agency builds database of phone calls

The US government is secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans’ phone calls in an effort to build a database of every call made within the country, it was reported today.

AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth telephone companies began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers’ phone calls to the National Security Agency programme shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said USA Today, citing anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement.