From: believer@telepath.com Subject: IP: FCC To Propose Resolving Digital Wiretap Debate Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 06:07:00 -0500 To: believer@telepath.com Forwarded: --------------- Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1998 01:37:23 -0500 From: Kepi <kepi@netdoor.com> Subject: FCC To Propose Resolving Digital Wiretap Debate Source: Yahoo! News Friday October 16 3:00 PM EDT FCC To Propose Resolving Digital Wiretap Debate By Aaron Pressman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission next week will propose requiring telephone companies to make a series of changes to give law enforcement agencies additional wiretapping capabilities, people familiar with the plan said. The proposal, which will only be issued for comment and could be changed, seeks to resolve the long-running dispute between the telephone industry, privacy advocates and the FBI over terms of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. The law was intended to preserve the FBI's ability to conduct wiretaps as telephone carriers introduced new digital technology making traditional alligator clip-and-wire approaches obsolete. But the law also sought to maintain the existing limits on wiretapping authority that protect the privacy of ordinary citizens. Much to the chagrin of privacy groups, the FCC's preliminary proposal would require wireless telephone carriers to turn over to law enforcers the location of a mobile phone user at the beginning and end of a tapped call, people familiar with the plan said. ``From a privacy protection perspective, the tracking question is tremendously important,'' said Jim Dempsey, senior staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit privacy group in Washington. ``Congress never would have passed this legislation if they thought they were turning cell phones into tracking devices,'' added Dempsey, who as a congressional staffer helped draft the law. But, heeding the call of privacy advocates, the FCC proposal will urge further study concerning the way digital calling information is turned over to law enforcers. Under current law, the police must give a judge evidence of probable cause of criminal activity to get permission to tap a call. But to get basic routing information, such as what numbers were called from a particular phone, the police need show only that the information might be relevant to an investigation, a much lower standard. In digital calling networks, however, a call is split up into tiny data packets that contain both the voice transmission and routing and signaling information. An industry proposal last year would have turned over to police entire packets of information, including both the routing data and the actual call itself, when just basic routing information was authorized. The FCC proposal will seek to determine if a more limited method of handing over just routing information would be feasible. The FBI has already rejected as inadequate the industry proposal that included the cell phone location and full packet disclosure provisions. The agency asked the FCC to require carriers to add another nine capabilities, such as the ability to continue listening to a conference call even if the caller being tapped hangs up. The FCC proposal recommends some but not all of the nine items should be added to phone networks, but also asked for further comments on all nine items. The industry fears refitting existing equipment to add those capabilities will cost billions of dollars. Their fears were confirmed in a recent letter from Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh to Congress, dated Oct. 6, and obtained by Reuters, that conceded the costs could reach $2 billion. Industry participants were pleased that the FCC was moving to address the issues, though. ``We have not seen the details yet but we're pleased the FCC is moving forward,'' Jeff Cohen, a spokesman for the Personal Communications Industry Association, said. Copyright © 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19981016/tc/fcc_2. html **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************