CIA is said to pay AT&T for call data

While Americans have recently focused on National Security Agency spying on foreign leaders, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has been doing it for years and AT&T (NYSE: T) is making about $10 million a year from the deal, according to a report from the New York Times.

The Times reports the intelligence agency is paying the telecommunications company more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company’s vast database of phone records, which includes Americans’ international calls.

According to the article, the CIA supplies phone numbers of overseas terrorism suspects, and AT&T searches its database and provides records of calls.

This isn't the first time AT&T has been linked to government information-gathering. The company was among several U.S. phone companies that provided metadata to the NSA to feed the surveillance programs disclosed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Read more from the New York Times.