Pen recorders and phone records
I have read that if the police want to know who a person communicates with on the telephone, they can arrange to have a "pen recorder" put on their phone line. This will record all phone numbers called from that line. Supposedly the legal barriers to this type of surveillance are much less than for a phone tap. I am confused about the necessity for this if the phone companies routinely record this information anyway. Is this just an archaic and obsolete terminology, and what really happens is that the phone company will give already-existing phone records to authorized officials? Thanks - Hal
The Secret Service also refer to devices that record incoming phone numbers as pen registers. _ __ __ _ _ _ _ | |___ _ _ | \/ |__ _| | (_)_ _ <*> Jonathan Scott Mallin | |_| / _ \ ' \ | |\/| / _` | | | | ' \ <*> <jmallin@umich.edu> \___/\___/_||_| |_| |_\__,_|_|_|_|_||_| <*> Email for PGP key -> This entire message is (C) 1994 by Jonathan Mallin. Reproduction is <- -> prohibited without express written consent. <-
I am confused about the necessity for this if the phone companies routinely record this information anyway. Is this just an archaic and obsolete terminology, and what really happens is that the phone company will give already-existing phone records to authorized officials?
Hal, I'm not sure, but a pen register would record all dialing codes (touch tone), not just those used to make the first leg of the call. Voicemail, multihop calls, etc come to mind. Eric Blossom
On Thu, 17 Feb 1994, Eric Blossom wrote:
Hal, I'm not sure, but a pen register would record all dialing codes (touch tone), not just those used to make the first leg of the call. Voicemail, multihop calls, etc come to mind.
I believe that they do. I dialed tons of extraneous #'s when I thought I was being DNRed. I also discussed various bogus murders with some of my friends.. it was quite interesting. You can never be too safe.. _ __ __ _ _ _ _ | |___ _ _ | \/ |__ _| | (_)_ _ <*> Jonathan Scott Mallin | |_| / _ \ ' \ | |\/| / _` | | | | ' \ <*> <jmallin@umich.edu> \___/\___/_||_| |_| |_\__,_|_|_|_|_||_| <*> Email for PGP key -> This entire message is (C) 1994 by Jonathan Mallin. Reproduction is <- -> prohibited without express written consent. <-
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