US cellphone carriers reveal police made 1.1mn 'snoop data' requests in 2012

US cellphone carriers have reportedly revealed that the law enforcement agencies made around 1.1 million user data requests related to location, text messages, browsing history and call logs in 2012.

Seven major US cellphone carriers including AT and T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are the latest to have surfaced in the ambit of the huge debate surrounding the US' alleged mass surveillance programmes.

According to Mashable, AT and T said that it denied only 1,300 out of a total of 297,500 requests, while Verizon said that it does not track whether they provided the requested data or not.

The companies also revealed that 9,000 so-called 'cellphone towers dumps' were also requested, which required the companies to provide phone numbers that connected to one or more towers at certain times, revealing customers' precise locations at a certain point in time.

The cellphone carriers also revealed that not all of them required warrants while releasing customer data.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who questioned the carriers for the extent to which they have been part of the NSA, expressed concern about the numbers and the carriers' varying practices which underscore the need for reforms.

The report said that Markey's inquiry also revealed that the US law enforcement agencies paid AT and T 10 million dollars in reimbursement, while T-Mobile got 11 million dollars, and Verizon was paid slightly less than 5 million dollars.