NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency is collecting telephone records of millions of Verizon Communications customers under a secret court order issued in April, according to a story on the Guardian website.
Citing a copy of the court order, which the Guardian said it had obtained, the report said Verizon is required on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA data on all phone calls in network within the United States and between the United States and other countries.
The National Security Agency told Reuters it had no immediate comment and Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden declined to comment.
The Guardian said the White House and the Department of Justice declined to comment for its story.
According to the story, the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the order to the FBI on April 25, giving the U.S. government unlimited authority to access the data for a three-month period ending on July 19.
The data Verizon is required to provide includes the numbers of both sides of a call along with location data, call duration and the time of the call but the contents of the conversation are not covered, according to the story.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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