Congressional Research Service Report on NSA Phone Records

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) made a report public in the last few days. The report details whether or not the NSA was lawful in their attempts at tracing and tracking phone calls. Here are a couple of terms you will need to know when reading:

Pen Register:
a device or process which records or decodes dialing,
routing, addressing, or signaling information transmitted by an instrument or facility from
which a wire or electronic communication is transmitted, provided, however, that such
information shall not include the contents of any communication

Trap and Trace Device:
means a device or process which captures the incoming
electronic or other impulses which identify the originating number or other dialing, routing,
addressing, and signaling information

Summary: as long as the contents of phone calls were not recorded, it appears that the NSA were within their rights, as were the telephone companies. A specific court case is referenced where judges stated that due to the fact that telephone numbers are in the public domain due to their nature (the phone company has to keep track of them in any event) that tracking phone numbers only is legal.

Here is the report: Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related Records: Legal Authorities