Reports have emerged, which Telstra does not deny, that in 2001 the company signed a deal with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation under which it would store and hand over all its customers’ communications with the US.

The revelations, first aired in online newsletter Crikey and repeated in Fairfax Media publications, come amidst the continuing controversy over the US PRISM electronic surveillance scandal, and add weight to concerns that governments and telcos are unnecessarily spying on their citizens and customers.

Telstra itself, and Australia’s Government and Opposition, are predictably silent about the deal. But the Green’s Senator Scott Ludlam, a vocal opponent of electronic eavesdropping, is not so reticent.

“Telstra must immediately disclose details of the deal to allow the FBI and US Department of Justice to monitor calls and data traffic via the company's undersea cables,” said Ludlam in a statement.

"Telstra, at the time majority owned and controlled by the Howard Government, struck a deal to allow 24/7 surveillance of calls going in and out of the US, including calls made by Australians. The cables in question are operated by Telstra subsidiary Reach, which controls more than 40 major telecommunications cables in the region, including cables in and out of China and Australia.

"While the current Australian Government recently pushed then abandoned a two-year mandatory data retention scheme, for more than a decade this secret deal with the United States compelled Telstra to store all customer billing data for two years.

"The deal also compelled Telstra to provide any stored communications and comply with preservation request; to provide any stored meta-data, billing data or subscriber information about US customers; to ignore any foreign privacy laws that might lead to mandatory destruction of stored data; and to refuse information requests from other countries without permission from the US.

"This secret deal also allowed FBI and US Department of Justice officials to conduct inspection visits of Telstra and Reach offices and infrastructure. This is an extraordinary breach of trust, invasion of privacy, and erosion of Australia's sovereignty," said Senator Ludlam.

This is not speculation. Crikey has somehow got hold of the entire agreement, which can be downloaded at:

https://media.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/US-NSAs-Telstra.pdf

A Telstra spokesman told Crikey "this Agreement, at that time 12 years ago, reflected Reach's operating obligations in the US that require carriers to comply with US domestic law." Fairfax Media, picking up on the story, was unable to get any further comment from Telstra.

When it asked Optus if it had any similar arrangement with the FBI, it was told simply that “Optus handles all of its customer information strictly in accordance with its legal obligations under Australian law.''

At the time of the deal, which occurred under the Howard Government in 2001, Telstra was still 50.1% Government owned. Telstra has subsequently been privatised, but there is no indication that the agreement has ever been rescinded.

Crikey appears to have got a world scoop on the story, which is now running on a number of international sites, all of them crediting Crikey. The Murdoch Press seems to be ignoring the story – its journalists have often been very derisive of Crikey and would hate to be seen as sourcing news from there.