Reminder: Monday is Wiretap the Internet Day
May 14th is the official deadline for cable modem
companies, DSL providers, broadband over
powerline, satellite internet companies and some
universities to finish wiring up their networks
with FBI-friendly surveillance gear, to comply
with the FCC's expanded interpretation of the
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.
Congress passed CALEA in 1994 to help FBI
eavesdroppers deal with digital telecom
technology. The law required phone companies to
make their networks easier to wiretap. The
results: on mobile phone networks, where CALEA
tech has 100% penetration, it's credited with
boosting the number of court-approved wiretaps a
carrier can handle simultaneously, and greatly
shortening the time it takes to get a wiretap
going. Cops can now start listening in less than a day.
Now that speed and efficiency is coming to
internet surveillance. While CALEA is all about
phones, the Justice Department began lobbying the
FCC in 2002 to reinterpret the law as applying to
the internet as well. The commission obliged, and
last June a divided federal appeals court upheld
the expansion 2-1. (The dissenting judge called
the FCC's position "gobbledygook." But he was outnumbered.)
So, if you're a broadband provider (separately,
some VOIP companies are covered too) Â… Hurry! The
deadline has already passed to file an FCC form
445 (.pdf), certifying that you're on schedule,
or explaining why you're not. You can also find
the 68-page official industry spec for internet
surveillance here. It'll cost you $164.00 to
download, but then you'll know exactly what
format to use when delivering customer packets to
federal or local law enforcement, including
"e-mail, instant messaging records, web-browsing
information and other information sent or
received through a user's broadband connection,
including on-line banking activity."
There are also third party brokers who will
handle all this for you for a fee.
It's worth noting that the new requirements don't
alter the legal standards for law enforcement to
win court orders for internet wiretaps. Fans of
CALEA expansion argue that it therefore won't
increase the number of Americans under surveillance.
That's wrong, of course. Making surveillance
easier and faster gives law enforcement agencies
of all stripes more reason to eschew
old-fashioned police work in favor of spying. The
telephone CALEA compliance deadline was in 2002,
and since then the amount of court-ordered
surveillance has nearly doubled from 2,586
applications granted that year, to 4,015 orders in 2006.
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127 Eastern Avenue #291 Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
Gloucester, MA 01931-8008 E-mail: mailto:jm..._at_tscm.com
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST