AT&T rakes in cash by selling spy service to law enforcement

AT&T is cashing in on what it knows about you by selling spying services to law enforcement.

Documents revealed by The Daily Beast on Tuesday show the telecommunications company developed a program called Hemisphere that mines cellphone data and call records and is accessible to law enforcement departments across the United States.

Access to Hemisphere ranges from $100,000 to more than $1 million each year, depending on the agency or police department, according to The Daily Beast.

Documents also show AT&T made an effort to keep the public from knowing about the program. Law enforcement officers don't need a warrant to request use of the company's data, but they do have to promise they won't talk about Hemisphere in public.

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The company has more than eight years of stored data from cell towers on hand, and keeps information regarding texts, calls, Skype chats, and more, providing a trove of information for law enforcement to mine.

Sprint hangs onto their data for 18 months, and Verizon keeps it for 12 months.

Authorities don't have direct access to Hemisphere -- which was first mentioned by The New York Times in 2013 -- but AT&T employees carry out law enforcement requests on their behalf.

The news is just the latest law enforcement surveillance story to make headlines. And it comes as AT&T has reached an $85 billion deal with Time Warner to become one of the most powerful media companies in the world.

Police have been found to use the services of several social media surveillance companies, often without public knowledge. A Georgetown University study also recently revealed that unregulated facial recognition is often used by police departments across the country, again often without public knowledge.