--- title: AT&T Partnered With NSA for Spying, Report Says description: New documents provided by Edward Snowden show AT&T handed over billions of emails and online interactions to the government canonical: https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-15T18:32:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:09.092Z article:section: Politics og:title: AT&T Partnered With NSA for Spying, Report Says og:description: New documents provided by Edward Snowden show AT&T handed over billions of emails and online interactions og:url: https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt795fe19e5b51af9a/69885f7d428a9e274acceaa1/ap_986069650299.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: AT&T og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: AT&T Partnered With NSA for Spying, Report Says twitter:description: New documents provided by Edward Snowden show AT&T handed over billions of emails and online interactions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt795fe19e5b51af9a/69885f7d428a9e274acceaa1/ap_986069650299.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # AT&T Partnered With NSA for Spying, Report Says > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=76187f68-22db-4b51-bf9c-c3a370628e7f&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden [Watch (HLS stream): Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cxBatp7g.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2013-12-11. TIME's Michael Scherer explains why NSA leaker Edward Snowden is on the short list for the 2013 TIME Person of the Year._  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Aug 15, 2015 6:32 PM UTC  FILE - This Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, file photo shows an AT&T logo on an AT&T Wireless retail store front, in Philadelphia. AT&T reports quarterly earnings on Tuesday, April 22, 2014\. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) FILE - This Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012, file photo shows an AT&T logo on an AT&T Wireless retail store front, in Philadelphia. AT&T reports quarterly earnings on Tuesday, April 22, 2014\. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Matt Rourke—AP  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Aug 15, 2015 6:32 PM UTC AT&T has [helped](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html?%5Fr=0) the National Security Agency spy on U.S. Internet traffic for more than a decade, according to newly disclosed documents provided to the _New York Times_ and ProPublica by Edward Snowden. Though many telecommunications companies have assisted the government in monitoring online interactions, the newly revealed papers called the relationship with AT&T “highly collaborative” and highlighted the company’s “extreme willingness to help.” AT&T handed over billions of emails to the NSA between 2003 and 2013 and offered technical assistance in executing a court order to wiretap all online communications at the United Nations headquarters. AT&T also installed surveillance equipment in 17 or more of its Internet hubs in the U.S., more than any other telecom company. Since the original Snowden disclosures in 2013, some telecommunications companies have begun to push back against the government on matters of security. In 2014, Verizon challenged a court order demanding it provide phone records. AT&T has said it does not comment on issues of national security. Read more at [_New York Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html?%5Fr=0) ## Transcript >> Edward Snowden made TIME's shortlist for 'Person of the Year' this year. In late spring and early summer I once known a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton, who was working for the National Security Agency began contacting reporters around the world saying he wanted to give them information. He basically took, as one person told me, one of everything. From the deepest, darkest safe house within the NSA describing almost everything they are doing around the world to collect information both on regular citizens and on traditional surveillance targets. The effects of these disclosures have really been earth shaking both domestically and around the world. In the U. S. there's Congressional Reform efforts President Obama has come up saying he wants to pursue reforms, there's resolutions with the United Nations that could actually change the way the world talks about privacy as a human right. And then there are a number of diplomatic crisis that have started as a result of this. The sense of the allies of the United States very upset about the surveillance that's been disclosed. And finally there's a real fear among U. S. technology created that foreign customers will not trust them now both because there are working relationships between the NSA and these companies. But also because the Snowden disclosures revealed that the NSA was also hacking into these technology companies without their knowledge. Snowden was 29 years old when he leaked this information. He has since turned 30, he's living now in Moscow on a one year asylum grant from the Russian government. He is someone who has thought very deeply about what he did. He thought very strategically about the information he leaked, and he has a cogent argument which has been spreading. And, for that reason I think that the mark that Snowden will leave on the world is that he is the person who has really introduced in a popular sense the notion that this brave new world of internet communication which gives us so much wonderful things can have a dark side. >> This is about a trend in the relationship between the governing and the governed. >> And there is a requirement among democratic states to think about the issues that arise here and figure out what rules and regulations they want to put in play. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/"},"headline":"AT&T Partnered With NSA for Spying, Report Says","datePublished":"2015-08-15T18:32:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:09.092Z","description":"New documents provided by Edward Snowden show AT&T handed over billions of emails and online interactions to the government","url":"https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/","keywords":["National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt795fe19e5b51af9a/69885f7d428a9e274acceaa1/ap_986069650299.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt795fe19e5b51af9a/69885f7d428a9e274acceaa1/ap_986069650299.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"AT&T","caption":"AT&T","creditText":"Matt Rourke—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/national-security/","name":"National Security"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/","name":"AT&T Partnered With NSA for Spying, Report Says"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Person of the Year 2013 Shortlist: Edward Snowden","description":"TIME's Michael Scherer explains why NSA leaker Edward Snowden is on the short list for the 2013 TIME Person of the Year.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cxBatp7g/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-11T12:42:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cxBatp7g.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/","duration":"PT2M26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3999527/att-nsa-spying/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```