From: "Ama-gi ISPI" <Offshore@email.msn.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 6.28: Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 00:13:40 -0800 To: <Undisclosed.Recipients@majordomo.pobox.com> ISPI Clips 6.28: Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Wednesday November 11, 1998 ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: WIRED News, November 10, 1998 http://www.wired.com Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16146.html by Declan McCullagh A federal wiretapping law designed to let police snoop on telephone calls could have profound implications for companies that offer Internet phone service. Then again, it might not affect them at all. The 1994 Digital Telephony law, which requires telecommunications companies to wire surveillance technology into their networks, could force Internet telephony firms to configure their systems to be easily wiretapped by law enforcement agencies. A Federal Communications Commission official, who declined to be identified, said the FCC is trying to decide how the law should apply to IP telephony and what types of Internet phone calls should be covered. In a report http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Notices/1998/fcc98282.txt ] released Thursday, the FCC said the law applies to "packet-switching technology" that is "used to provide telecommunications services." "It's a major issue that has to be sorted out," said James Dempsey, senior staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "What side of the line does Internet telephony fall on? [Companies] should definitely wake up and pay attention." The wiretapping law, also known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, gave the FCC the authority to set standards and timetables. The agency said in September that companies must comply with CALEA by 30 June 2000. The FCC has tentatively ruled that IP telephony using computers is an "information service" and, therefore, not covered by CALEA. But the agency has also said that phone-to-phone IP telephony falls into the category of [ http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/fcc98067.txt ]telecommu nications services. That category includes firms like IDT and Qwest, which allow long-distance customers to phone a local gateway and forward those calls over the Internet to a gateway at the other end. "I think, fundamentally, this is one of the sleeper issues that is going to be affecting the Internet telephony industry into the year 2000 and beyond," said Jeff Pulver, co-founder of the VON Coalition http://www.von.org/ ]. "We all need to be aware of what the legal issues are," Pulver said. "I'm all for what I call 'intelligent regulation.' If we need to comply, then damn it, we should comply. Ignorance is no excuse." "Internet telephony will eventually be included in CALEA," said Alyson Ziegler, director of legislative affairs for the United States Telephone Association [ http://www.usta.org/ ] "It's a matter of time." CALEA's backers say the law was designed to allow authorities to monitor conversations surreptitiously on digital phone lines just as they are now able to tap into analog phone lines. But privacy advocates oppose the measure, arguing that it expands the government's surveillance power. "This is something we've been warning about for years, that the convergence between these technologies will make the distinctions originally contemplated in CALEA ultimately moot," said David Banisar, a lawyer at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "CALEA will be applied to the Net regardless of what the intent of the law actually was." Even before CALEA became law, indications surfaced that law enforcement would like it to include the Internet. When asked about that possibility during a hearing in August 1994, FBI Director Louis Freeh replied, "It's certainly a possibility -- if, God forbid, someone blows up the World Trade Tower using a PC to PC network." Making an already prickly issue even thornier is the fact that some IP telephony companies use encryption to scramble conversations. NetSpeak, for example, uses RSA encryption [ http://www.netspeak.com/ ]. If two IP phone customers are using public key cryptography to chat in a way that even the IP telephony company can't decode, law enforcement agents are out of luck -- one reason why the FBI has lobbied to ban the manufacture and distribution of encryption devices without key escrow backdoors. Not all companies are complaining about CALEA. Aplio [ http://www.aplio.com/ ] CEO Olivier Zitoun believes his company's products fall into the FCC's definition of computer-to-computer IP telephony. Aplio sells boxes that can be plugged into normal touch-tone phones and used to call an Internet provider, which routes calls over the Net. "We are very different than other phone-to-phone devices or solutions," Zitoun said. "In a way, the discussion of IP-telephony regulation doesn't really apply to us." Copyright © 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. 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