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Transparency Report

At AT&T, we take our responsibility to protect your information and privacy very seriously. You can learn more by reading our Customer Privacy Issue Brief.

Overview

Like all companies, we are required by law to provide information to government and law enforcement entities, as well as parties to civil lawsuits, by complying with court orders, subpoenas, lawful discovery requests and other legal requirements. This AT&T Transparency Report provides (1) specific data regarding the number and types of legal demands to which we responded for the first half of 2023 that compelled AT&T to provide information about (a) communications or (b) our customers, as well as (2) information permitted by law to be disclosed about Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act demands for the second half of 2022. The Transparency Report also provides information about legal demands that were partially or completely rejected, demands for location information, emergency requests and international legal demands.

In this report, “AT&T” includes all of AT&T’s operating units as of this reporting period:

Past Reports

We maintain an archive that includes transparency reports for the past 5 years. They can be found in our ESG Reporting Archive.

View Past Reports

National Security Demands

National Security Letters (NSLs) are administrative subpoenas issued by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to compel the production of information regarding counterterrorism or counterintelligence investigations. NSLs are limited to non-content information, such as a list of phone numbers dialed or subscriber information. Legal demands issued pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) may direct us to provide content and non-content data related to national security investigations, such as international terrorism or espionage.

Our reporting on NSLs and FISA orders (collectively referred to as “National Security Demands”) is governed by U.S. law.2 By statute, we are permitted to report data of demands served on us and the “customer selectors targeted” by those respective demands in specifically defined numeric ranges and for only certain time periods.

National Security Letters January - June 2023
Total Received 000 - 499
Customer Selectors Targeted 1,500 - 1,999
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act July - December 2022
Total Content 000 - 499
Customer Selectors Targeted 12,500 - 12,999
Total Non-Content 000 - 499
Customer Selectors Targeted 000 - 499

Total U.S. Criminal and Civil Demands

This number includes demands to which we responded in connection with criminal and civil litigation matters. This category doesn’t include demands reported in our National Security Demands table.

Criminal proceedings include actions by government entities — whether at the federal, state or local level — against an individual arising from an alleged violation of criminal law. Because federal, state and local investigating authorities in the U.S. may each initiate criminal proceedings, we receive demands from thousands of different law enforcement entities.

Civil actions include lawsuits involving private parties (e.g., a personal liability case, divorce proceeding or disputes between private companies or individuals). In addition, civil proceedings include investigations by governmental regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

Our Process

We receive multiple types of legal demands, including subpoenas, court orders and search warrants. Before we respond to any legal demand, we determine that we have received the correct type of demand based on the applicable law for the type of information sought. For instance, in some states we must supply call detail records if we receive a subpoena. In other states, call detail records require a probable cause court order or search warrant. If the requesting agency has failed to send the correct type of demand, we reject the demand.

Types of Legal Demands

The reporting category “Total U.S. Criminal & Civil Demands” reflects the type of demand with the information requested, particularly relating to General Court Orders and search warrants.

Foreign-Originated Demands for Information about a U.S. Consumer or Business

If we receive an international demand for information about a U.S. customer, whether an individual or business, we refer the requester to that country’s Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) process. We did not receive any international demands for information about a U.S. customer from a country that does not have an MLAT process. The FBI ensures that we receive the proper form of U.S. process (e.g., subpoena, court order or search warrant), subject to the limitations placed on discovery in the U.S., and that cross-border data flows are handled appropriately. All international originated demands that follow an MLAT procedure are reported in our Total Demands category.

Total Demands January - June 2023
Federal, State and Local; Criminal and Civil 138,310
Total Subpoenas January - June 2023
Criminal Subpoenas 94,983
Civil Subpoenas 7,974
Total 102,957
Court Orders (General) January - June 2023
Historic 4,405
Real-Time (Pen Registers) 3,944
Total 8,349
Historic Search Warrants/Probable Cause Court Orders January - June 2023
Stored Content 8,100
Other 9,235
Total 17,335
Real-Time Search Warrants/Probable Cause Court Orders January - June 2023
Wiretaps 918
Mobile Locate Demands 8,751
Total 9,669

Demands Rejected/Partial or No Data Provided

(Breakout detail of data included in Total U.S. Criminal & Civil Demands)

In this category, we include the number of times we rejected a demand or provided only partial information or no information in response to a demand. Here are a few reasons why certain demands fall into this category:

Type January - June 2023
Rejected/Challenged 4,037
Partial or No Information 40,523
Total 44,560

Location Demands

(Breakout detail of data included in Total U.S. Criminal & Civil Demands)

Our “Location Demands” category breaks out the number of civil and criminal legal demands we received by the type of location information (historic or real-time) demanded. Demands for location information seek precise GPS coordinates of the device or call detail records that reflect the location of any cell site processing a call. We also get demands for cell tower searches, which ask us to provide all telephone numbers registered on a particular cell tower for a certain period of time. We do not keep track of the number of telephone numbers provided to law enforcement in connection with cell tower searches.

A single cell tower demand may cover multiple towers. We disclose both the total number of demands and the total number of cell tower searches. For instance, if we received one court order that included two cell towers, we count that as one demand for two searches. For the 2,513 cell tower demands during this reporting period, we performed 6,319 searches. The average time period that law enforcement demanded for a cell tower search was 2 hours and 33 minutes for this reporting period.

Like all companies, we are required by law to provide information to law enforcement and other government entities by complying with court orders, subpoenas and lawful discovery requests. In all cases, we review requests to determine whether they are valid. We require a search warrant based on the probable cause standard for all demands for real-time or historical location information, except in emergency situations.

Type January - June 2023
Historic 46,165
Real-Time 12,091
Cell Tower 2,513
Total 60,769

Emergency Requests

The numbers provided in this category are the total of 911-originated inquiries and exigent requests that we processed during this reporting period. 911-originated inquiries are those that help locate or identify a person in need of emergency assistance. “Exigent requests” are emergency requests from law enforcement working on kidnappings, missing person cases, attempted suicides and other emergencies. In order to protect your privacy, we require a certification from a law enforcement agency confirming they are dealing with a case involving risk of death or serious injury before we will share information sought by an exigent request.

Type January - June 2023
911 33,428
Exigent 17,047
Total 50,475

International Demands34

The “International Demands” category represents the number of civil and criminal legal demands originating outside the U.S. and related to AT&T’s operations in foreign countries. These demands are for (i) historic subscriber information about consumers who reside in other countries and businesses that operate in other countries; and (ii) URL/IP (website/internet address) blocking demands from foreign governments. Legal demands related to our operations in Mexico are addressed in a separate section later in the Report.

The Diverse Services AT&T Provides Internationally Affect the Types and Volume of Demands We Receive

A Few Additional Points

Historic Subscriber Information is information such as the name and address listed on the billing account or the types of services purchased from us.

The IP or URL blocking demands come from countries that require us to block access to websites that they deem offensive, illegal, unauthorized or otherwise inappropriate. These demands are listed separately from the demands for historic subscriber information.

While we may provide internet access in some foreign countries, we do not have the ability to control the content of any websites other than our own sites. Accordingly, while we did receive and comply with demands from foreign governments to block access to websites in their countries during this reporting period, we did not receive demands to remove content from websites (nor would we be able to do so). During this reporting period, we did not receive any demands from any foreign governments to produce any stored content.

Finally, the laws governing the international demands that we receive differ by country. We respond to these demands based on each country’s laws.5

Austria January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Belgium January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Brazil January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 9
Bulgaria January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Canada January - June 2023
Historic: Subscriber Information 4
Colombia January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 3
Croatia January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Cyprus January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Czech Republic January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Denmark January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Estonia January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Finland January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
France January - June 2023
Historic: Subscriber Information 18
IP/URL Blocking 1
Germany January - June 2023
Historic: Subscriber Information 1
IP/URL Blocking 1
Greece January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Hungary January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Ireland January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Israel January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 4
Italy January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Latvia January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Lithuania January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Luxembourg January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Netherlands January - June 2023
Historic: Subscriber Information 2
IP/URL Blocking 1
Poland January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Portugal January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Romania January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Slovakia January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 2
Slovenia January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Spain January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
Sweden January - June 2023
IP/URL Blocking 1
UK January - June 2023
Historic: Subscriber Information 1

Mexico

The laws applicable to demands received in Mexico are listed below.

General Information Requirements

Wiretaps

Types of Legal Demands

In Mexico, there is no distinction between Subpoenas and General Court Orders as in the U.S., because the law provides that all demands for customer data must be reviewed and authorized by a judge. The legal demands are classified as follows:

Historic Information: Subscriber Information/Call Detail Records January - June 2023
Location Information (Cell Site) 14,568
Total (Includes judicial authorities and national security) 17,744
Real-Time January - June 2023
Wiretaps 1,039
Location Information (Precise) 2,062
Total 3,101
Demands Rejected/Partial or No Data Provided January - June 2023
Rejected/Challenged 513
Partial or No Information 522
Total (Breakout detail of data included in Total Mexico Demands) 1,035
  1. On August 2, 2021, we completed our transaction with TPG Capital establishing a new, independent company named “DIRECTV.” This new company owns and operates the DIRECTV, AT&T TV and U-verse video services previously owned and operated by AT&T, which is now a non-controlling shareholder. AT&T continues to process legal demands on behalf of DIRECTV under a commercial agreement, and this Report includes data from DIRECTV for the entire reporting period.
  2. See 50 U.S.C. § 1874, as added by the USA Freedom Act (Public Law 114-23 of June 2, 2015).
  3. Countries where “0” has been reported have been removed from this chart. We will add countries back in future reports should we receive new requests in any of those countries.
  4. In response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine, the EU issued a Regulation in March 2022, by which member states’ operators, including in-country Internet Service Providers, were directed to block Russian sites including Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik. AT&T complied with the Regulation in the EU member states listed in this chart.
  5. India, for example, does not permit publication of demands.