Re: The right to be secure (fwd Computerworld article)
Now this is news to me. You mean that they can listen to me if they can rationalize that there is a threat to national security? Here's a scenerio. John Q. Public HAS a copy of pgp and some LEA knows it. It must be that he's some kind of subversive. Therefore, he is a threat to national security. It is therefore legal to infringe on his rights? Maybe this is a bit of exageration...maybe it's not.... There are safeguards in the law; whether they're adequate or not is open to discussion. But it's not nearly as easy as you portray. Warrantless wiretaps are governed by the provisions of 50 USC 1801, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Under that act, the Feds can engage in electronic surveillance without a warrant if and only if all parties are non-Americans. If an American is picked up, they have to destroy the tape. Furthermore, under many circumstances (and I don't remember the details, and I don't seem to have a copy of that law in my folder for such things), the consent of a special court is needed. As I said -- they (or should that be ``They'') *can* do anything. But that doesn't make it legal, which was your question, and if they do it and are caught, the case will undoubtedly be thrown out of court. Furthermore, if the tap didn't fall under the exceptions of the FISA, it's barred by the ECPA, so you could sue for damages.
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smb@research.att.com