Room 641A
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Room 641A is a telecommunication interception facility operated by
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
for the U.S.
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
, as part of an American mass surveillance program. The facility commenced operations in 2003 and its purpose was publicly revealed by AT&T technician
Mark Klein Mark Lee Klein (May 2, 1945 – March 8, 2025) was an American AT&T technician and whistleblower who revealed details of the company's cooperation with the United States National Security Agency in installing network hardware at a site known a ...
in 2006.


Description

Room 641A is located in the
SBC Communications AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the ...
building at 611 Folsom Street,
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, three floors of which were occupied by
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
before SBC purchased AT&T. The room was referred to in internal AT&T documents as the ''SG3 tudy Group 3Secure Room''. The room measures about and contains several racks of equipment, including a Narus STA 6400, a device designed to intercept and analyze Internet communications at very high speeds. It is fed by
fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...
lines from
beam splitter A beam splitter or beamsplitter is an optical instrument, optical device that splits a beam of light into a transmitted and a reflected beam. It is a crucial part of many optical experimental and measurement systems, such as Interferometry, int ...
s installed in fiber optic trunks carrying
Internet backbone The Internet backbone is the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected computer networks and core routers of the Internet. These data routes are hosted by commercial, government, academic and other high-capacity network ...
traffic. In the analysis of J. Scott Marcus, a former CTO for
GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...
and a former adviser to the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
, it has access to all Internet traffic that passes through the building, and therefore "the capability to enable surveillance and analysis of internet content on a massive scale, including both overseas and purely domestic traffic." The existence of the room was revealed by former AT&T technician
Mark Klein Mark Lee Klein (May 2, 1945 – March 8, 2025) was an American AT&T technician and whistleblower who revealed details of the company's cooperation with the United States National Security Agency in installing network hardware at a site known a ...
and was the subject of a 2006
class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage Robot''), a 2002 e ...
lawsuit by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
against AT&T. Klein claims he was told that similar
black room __NOTOC__ A black room is part of a communication center (e.g. a post office) used by state officials to conduct clandestine interception and surveillance of communications. Typically, all letters or communications pass through the black room ...
s are operated at other facilities around the country. Room 641A and the controversies surrounding it were subjects of an episode of '' Frontline'', the current affairs documentary program on
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
. It was originally broadcast on May 15, 2007. It was also featured on PBS's '' NOW'' on March 14, 2008. The room was also covered in the PBS ''
Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...
'' episode "The Spy Factory".


Lawsuits

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a
class-action A class action A class action is a form of lawsuit. Class Action may also refer to: * ''Class Action'' (film), 1991, starring Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio * Class Action (band), a garage house band * "Class Action" (''Teenage R ...
lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...
against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecommunication company of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
(NSA) in a massive, illegal program to
wiretap Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...
and data-mine Americans' communications. On July 20, 2006, a federal judge denied the government's and AT&T's motions to dismiss the case, chiefly on the ground of the state secrets privilege, allowing the lawsuit to go forward. On August 15, 2007, the case was heard by the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...
and was dismissed on December 29, 2011, based on a retroactive grant of immunity by Congress for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the government. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. A different case by the Electronic Frontier Foundation was filed on September 18, 2008, titled '' Jewel v. NSA''. After many years of litigation, on April 25, 2019, the ruling from the Northern District of California for ''Jewel v. NSA'' concluded that the evidence presented by the plaintiff's experts was insufficient: "the Court confirms its earlier finding that Klein cannot establish the content, function, or purpose of the secure room at the AT&T site based on his own independent knowledge." The ruling noted that "Klein can only speculate about what data were actually processed and by whom in the secure room and how and for what purpose, as he was never involved in its operation." The Court further went on to discredit other experts called upon, citing their heavy reliance on the Klein declaration. In the spring of 2006, over 50 other lawsuits were filed against various telecommunications companies, in response to the article. There has been speculation that several rooms similar to this exist all over the United States.


Gallery

File:SER marcus decl.djvu, page=17, Page 17: Basic diagram of how the alleged wiretapping was accomplished. From EFF court filings. File:SER klein exhibits.djvu, page=9, Page 9: More complicated diagram of how it allegedly worked. From EFF court filings. File:Fiber optic tap.png, A fiber optic tap


See also

*
Cabinet noir In France, the ''cabinet noir'' (; French for " black room", also known as the "dark chamber" or " black chamber") was a government intelligence-gathering office, usually within a postal service, where correspondence between persons or entities ...
*
ECHELON Echelon may refer to: * A level formation ** A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society ** A military sub-subunit smaller than a company but larger than a platoon ** Echelon formation, a step-like arrangement of units * ECHELO ...
* Fairview (surveillance program) * Fiber tapping * Hemisphere Project, mass surveillance program conducted by AT&T and paid for by the DEA * Main Core *
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
* President's Surveillance Program *
PRISM (surveillance program) PRISM is a code name for a program under which the United States National Security Agency (NSA) collects internet communications from various U.S. internet companies. The program is also known by the SIGINT Activity Designator, SIGAD . PRISM ...
*
Signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...
*
Upstream collection Upstream collection is a term used by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States for intercepting telephone and Internet traffic from the Internet backbone, meaning major Internet cables and switches, both domestic and foreign. Besid ...
*
Utah Data Center The Utah Data Center (UDC), also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community that is designed to store data estimated to ...
* 33 Thomas Street


References


External links

* * * {{National Security Agency AT&T buildings George W. Bush administration controversies History of cryptography Locations in the history of espionage National Security Agency facilities Privacy of telecommunications Signals intelligence Privacy in the United States Organizations based in San Francisco Individual rooms