I have a suspicion, backed by NO information whatsoever, that this data storage may have been required by the FBI or some other law enforcement agency.
When I was working for a telephone manufacturer making computer connected phones, I found out some things that I did not know about the phone system. For example, the 3x4 keypad layout on our telephones is actually three-quarters of a 4x4 key layout. I was told that the other four keys are (in part) reserved for FBI/law enforcement use.
Actually the original use of the additional keys on the ATT phone network was for special features and network management, think back to the old days of operators and manual call routing. On some networks the keys were used to enable specific features which are now accessed through different mechanisms like *67 to suppress caller ID. Some organizations (like the US Military) had dedicated communication links (often also managed by ATT) and used the additional keys to set priorities on calls. All of this is documented in various histories of the US phone system. A decent summary can be found on Wikipedia.
Technology doesn't develop in clean simple ways. There are always dead ends, obsolete bits and occasional oopses along the way. Assuming the worst may be safe (or at least good clean fun paranoia) but there are practical limits and sometimes it is better to attribute things to "stuff happens" and oops than nefarious reasons.
-Eric
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