Hemisphere is a phone-records search service run through AT&T for police. Analysts query the company's call records on a request from an officer, usually backed by a subpoena rather than a warrant. The New York Times exposed it in 2013, including an instruction that users never name it in official documents. In late 2023, Sen. Ron Wyden disclosed that it had continued under a new name: Data Analytical Services. A tool its users are told to hide is a tool a defendant can't challenge.
Key takeaways
- The Times reported that drug investigators could reach AT&T call records going back to 1987, with about 4 billion new records added every day (New York Times, Sept. 1, 2013).
- Training material told requestors never to refer to Hemisphere in any official document. That is the parallel construction problem in one sentence.
- After White House funding was suspended in 2013, the service continued as "Data Analytical Services," paid for through a White House drug-office grant to the Houston HIDTA (Wyden letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Nov. 20, 2023).
- EFF's public-records lawsuit forced out training slides and emails, and the DEA paid $160,000 toward EFF's legal fees to settle it (EFF, Dec. 19, 2018).
- Nothing in the public record we have reviewed ties Hemisphere to any case we track. The point is the method, not an accusation.
01What Hemisphere is
Hemisphere is not a wiretap. It doesn't record what you say. It searches call detail records: the logs a phone company keeps of which numbers connected, when, and for how long.
What made it unusual was scale and setup. The New York Times, Sept. 1, 2013 reported that drug investigators could reach AT&T call records going back to 1987, and that roughly 4 billion new records were added each day. The paper's headline put it plainly: the trove eclipsed the NSA's.
AT&T does the searching. According to EFF, Dec. 19, 2018, the company placed employees inside police agencies in Los Angeles, Houston and Atlanta to run the search software. Wyden's letter describes requests going to an AT&T analyst in Atlanta, whom an officer at any federal, state, local or Tribal agency can contact directly.
The reach goes past AT&T's own customers. EFF reported that the database can include other carriers' records because their calls pass through AT&T switches. Wyden's letter says the searches cover the company's wholesale division, which carries other companies' customers' communications.
02How a search worked
Here is the flow as the public documents describe it. Each step is sourced; none of it comes from a specific case.
- An officer has a phone number. Usually in a drug case, according to EFF, Dec. 19, 2018, though Wyden's letter says requests don't have to involve drugs.
- The officer sends legal process. An administrative subpoena is a demand for records an agency can issue itself, without a judge signing off. Wyden's letter says federal and state agencies can use a subpoena everywhere except California and Texas, which require a court order.
- An AT&T analyst runs the search. Wyden describes the results as "often-warrantless" searches of trillions of domestic phone records.
- Results come back in layers. A slide deck cited in the letter describes two levels of call records for one target number, which Wyden explains means the records of everyone who communicated with the target.
- Extras. The letter says capabilities include obtaining location data, identifying alternate numbers a target uses, and spotting SIM-card swaps. EFF reported it was valued for following people who switch phones.
A DEA official called it a "Super Search Engine" and "Google on Steroids," according to records EFF obtained (EFF, Dec. 19, 2018).
No public source we found counts how many searches were run, how many people's records came back in the second layer, or how many prosecutions began with a Hemisphere result. Those numbers have never been released.
03"Never refer to Hemisphere"
The detail that drew this site's attention is a single instruction. The Times reported that training material told requestors to never refer to Hemisphere in any official document (New York Times, Sept. 1, 2013).
EFF's documents filled in the rest. An AT&T attorney email from 2007 expressed a wish to keep Hemisphere out of court filings. A later DEA email discussed keeping it out of DEA Form 6 reports, the agency's written investigative reports. EFF reported that after a Hemisphere search, officers would develop a second, conventional way to get the same information and put that in the file instead (EFF, Dec. 19, 2018).
That is the pattern Reuters documented at the DEA's Special Operations Division, where agents were told to recreate tips with "normal investigative techniques" so the true source never appeared (Reuters, Aug. 5, 2013). The name for it is parallel construction: a hidden source is replaced by a clean one before anything reaches a judge.
Why the paper trail matters
A defense lawyer can only challenge a search that appears in discovery. If the report says "subpoenaed toll records" and the first look actually came from a broader database query, the question of whether that query was lawful never gets asked.
04Who pays, and why it matters
Hemisphere's funding route is part of the story. Per Sen. Ron Wyden, Nov. 20, 2023, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) gives a grant to the Houston High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. A HIDTA is a federally funded partnership of federal, state and local police in a region designated as a drug-trafficking hub. Houston HIDTA then pays AT&T to run the program.
Wyden argued this structure has a consequence. Because the money flows through a HIDTA rather than straight from an agency like the DEA, the program has never had a federal Privacy Impact Assessment, the review an agency must do before running a system that handles personal data.
The documents describing it aren't classified. The Justice Department marked them "Law Enforcement Sensitive," which keeps them out of public release. Wyden asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to lift that restriction, and noted that the department had already acknowledged the program's existence in federal court (Sen. Ron Wyden, Nov. 20, 2023).
Wyden's letter says searches don't have to support drug investigations. An appendix to the same letter says the service is strictly limited to counternarcotics work. Both statements are in the public record. We can't resolve which reflects practice.
05From Hemisphere to Data Analytical Services
The rename matters because it makes the program harder to find. A records request or a discovery demand for "Hemisphere" can come back empty if the paperwork now says something else.
- Sept. 1, 2013
The Times exposes Hemisphere
Access to AT&T call records back to 1987, and the instruction to keep it out of official documents (New York Times, Sept. 1, 2013).
- 2013
White House funding suspended
Wyden's letter says the Obama administration suspended ONDCP funding that year. The appendix says the service was called Hemisphere from 2009 through 2013.
- After 2013
"Data Analytical Services"
The service continues under what Wyden called a generic-sounding name, with HIDTA funding listed again in later years (Wyden letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Nov. 20, 2023).
- Dec. 2016
Court rejects secrecy claims
A federal magistrate judge in EFF's records suit rejects several of the government's grounds for withholding documents (EFF, Dec. 22, 2016).
- Nov. 20, 2023
Wyden goes public
The senator discloses the new name and asks the Justice Department to release the documents (Sen. Ron Wyden, Nov. 20, 2023).
06What EFF's lawsuit pried loose
Most of what is known beyond the Times story came from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit. FOIA lets anyone request federal agency records; agencies can withhold material only under specific exemptions, and a court can review those claims.
EFF sued over Hemisphere records in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (EFF v. DOJ, complaint). In December 2016, Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James rejected several of the government's arguments. She found the government hadn't shown that documents shared with state and local police stayed internal, hadn't shown release would interfere with enforcement proceedings, and hadn't shown it promised the phone companies confidentiality. She ordered roughly 260 pages submitted for the court's review (EFF, Dec. 22, 2016).
The case later settled. EFF reported that the DEA reimbursed $160,000 in legal fees, and that the final release ran to more than 300 pages, including a request form, training presentations and emails (EFF, Dec. 19, 2018).
07Why secrecy instructions are a defense problem
Call records are among the least protected data the government collects. The Supreme Court's location-records decision, Carpenter v. United States, required a warrant for historical cell-site location data but said subpoenas remain enough for most business records. Hemisphere lives mostly on the subpoena side of that line, which is why its secrecy matters more than its legality.
None of this shows that Hemisphere started any particular case. It shows a system designed so that, if it did, the defendant would not be told. That's the same structure we describe in the public record of exposures.
If you or someone you know is facing charges built on phone records, these are questions to bring to a lawyer, not answers:
- What legal process produced each set of call records in discovery, and on what date was it served?
- Did any agency in the case route a records request through a HIDTA, or through a phone-company analyst rather than a standard subpoena desk?
- Do the reports explain how investigators learned of a new or replacement phone number?
- Was any "two-level" or contact-chain analysis run, and is it in discovery?
- Will the government confirm whether Hemisphere or Data Analytical Services was queried at any point?
08FAQ
Is Hemisphere the same as the NSA's phone-records program?
No. Hemisphere is a law enforcement service run through AT&T and paid for through a White House drug-control grant, according to Sen. Wyden. Requests come from police and federal agents working criminal investigations.
Does Hemisphere record what people say on calls?
The public documents describe call detail records: which numbers connected, when, and for how long. They do not describe recordings of call content. Wyden's letter says the service can also be used to obtain location data.
Do police need a warrant to use Hemisphere?
According to Wyden's letter, federal and state agencies can use a subpoena in every state except California and Texas, which require a court order. Wyden called the searches often warrantless.
Is Hemisphere still running?
Wyden's November 20, 2023 letter said it continued under the name Data Analytical Services. We have not found a later public source confirming whether it is still operating.
Was Hemisphere used in any case this site tracks?
Nothing in the public record we have reviewed connects Hemisphere to any of our case files. We explain the program because its design hides its own use.
Following a case built on phone-records subpoenas?
Send us the court, the docket number and the filings. We read the record, cite what it says, and correct our own work. If you are the person charged, talk to your own lawyer before sharing anything about your case with anyone, including us. Messages to us are not privileged.
09Sources
Every fact in this dispatch comes from the documents below. If you spot an error, tell us and we'll correct it on this page.
- New York Times, "Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.'s", Sept. 1, 2013
- Sen. Ron Wyden, press release on Hemisphere, Nov. 20, 2023
- Sen. Ron Wyden, letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, with Appendix A, Nov. 20, 2023
- EFF, "Victory: Court Rejects Government's Secrecy Claims in EFF's Hemisphere Suit", Dec. 22, 2016
- EFF, what it learned about Hemisphere after suing the DEA, Dec. 19, 2018
- EFF v. DOJ, Hemisphere FOIA complaint, N.D. Cal.
- Reuters, "U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans", Aug. 5, 2013
- Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402, 2018, Cornell LII
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Public education, not legal advice. We are not attorneys. If you are facing charges, talk to your lawyer before sharing anything about your case with anyone, including us.