The Obama administration has been quietly collecting millions of telephone records from U.S. Verizon customers under a top-secret court order first obtained in late April, according to British newspaper The Guardian.

A copy of the classified order, posted Wednesday on the newspaper’s website, reveals that Verizon has been required to provide to the National Security Agency on an ‘ongoing, daily basis’ information on all phone calls made through its systems.

Under the order, the government has obtained phone numbers of both parties on every Verizon call, the call’s duration, location data and the time of day the calls were made. The order does not allow the government to listen in on the calls or obtain details of their contents.

The order was granted April 25 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), which oversees secret government requests for private information that might help identify suspected terrorists or foreign nationals in the U.S. The order, which did not identify intended targets or the rational for casting such a wide net, expires July 19.

A former top U.S. intelligence official with decades of direct experience handling FISA surveillance matters told ABC News that the scope of the Verizon order posted online by the Guardian is breathtaking.

‘This […]