Verizon reports 1,000-1,999 security data orders

WASHINGTON — Verizon Communications Inc. says it received between 1,000 and 1,999 government requests for customer information related to national security last year.

The largest U.S. cellphone carrier made the disclosure in its first report on law-enforcement data requests. Verizon and No. 1 U.S. telecom company AT&T Inc. decided late last year to begin making the information public as debate intensified over the National Security Agency's collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records under secret court order.

The NSA program was revealed in June in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Verizon plans to update the report twice a year.

The requests, known as national security letters, that Verizon received were in addition to 321,545 demands for customer data last year from U.S. federal and local law-enforcement agencies.