Firms resisting the NSA's CALEA due to economy

[George at Orwellian.Org]

Excerpt:

#    "In a packet world, somebody has to open the packet to look for
#    the information the FBI is seeking. Is the FBI going to do it?
#    We're not going to do it unless we are paid to do it.

----

http://www.zdnet.com/filters/printerfriendly/0,6061,2773783-35,00.html
#    
#    Unresolved Issues Dog Fed's Data-Tap Efforts
#    By Doug Brown, Interactive Week
#    June 13, 2001 8:33 AM PT
#    
#    
#    Rapid changes in communications technology threaten to make "a big mess"
#    out of the federal government's ambitious plans to weave wiretapping into
#    the fabric of the digital age, while a 1994 law grows increasingly
#    outdated.
#    
#    While parts of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
#    (CALEA) have already been implemented by phone and other communications
#    carriers, important areas of the law are being disputed in courtrooms and
#    mulled over by bureaucrats in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the
#    Federal Communications Commission.
#    
#    One unresolved issue is how to handle packet data, a technology that was
#    in its infancy when the law was written, but has since emerged as the
#    leading method for transmitting voice and data in the Internet age.
#    
#    Communications companies carrying packet data have until Sept. 30 to
#    demonstrate that their systems will permit law enforcement officials to
#    conduct wiretaps. The industry has filed requests with the FCC to extend
#    the deadline. The FBI argues that extensions should not be granted.
#    Industry representatives say they need to figure out a way to separate
#    the packets' header data from content before they can implement any
#    standards, and the technological solution to the problem could take years
#    to figure out. It's up to the FCC to decide how to proceed.
#    
#    "We believe the packet issue is going to be around for a long time," said
#    Rodney Small, an economist in the FCC's office of engineering and
#    technology who handles CALEA. Industry has "decided it's too expensive to
#    do this, and they aren't sure what the privacy implications are," Small
#    said. "They are getting cold feet, legally and financially. Meanwhile,
#    these new technologies keep developing. . . . On the packet data 'issue',
#    there could be more petitions and it could be a big mess."
#    
#    An industry official agreed. "You will see more lawsuits or court
#    challenges. You'll certainly see carriers filing extensions on packet
#    data deadlines," said Grant Seiffert, vice president of external affairs
#    and global policy at the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade
#    group representing many telecommunications carriers implicated in the
#    CALEA regulations. "In a packet world, somebody has to open the packet to
#    look for the information the FBI is seeking. Is the FBI going to do it?
#    We're not going to do it unless we are paid to do it. Who is going to be
#    looking over everyone's shoulders when we open up this information?"
#    
#    As the packet data issue looms, industry and civil liberties advocates
#    await signals from the Bush administration about how new regulators -
#    particularly FCC commissioners and the new FBI director - plan to
#    approach government surveillance issues. The agencies' decisions could
#    affect the depth of the debates.
#    
#    "Congress may be re-engaged," Seiffert said. "It's sort of a wait-and-see
#    game right now."
#    
#    "The FBI's credibility is at an all-time low here," said Barry
#    Steinhardt, associate director at the American Civil Liberties Union.
#    "Attorney General 'John' Ashcroft in the Senate expressed skepticism
#    about a number of government surveillance programs."
#    
#    An FBI spokesman defended work to date, saying: "There has been
#    significant progress made with the implementation of CALEA," and citing
#    technical solutions available for wireline and wireless segments of the
#    telecom industry.
#    
#    Some CALEA experts question some of what the FBI has managed to implement
#    already, charging that the agency installed sophisticated data collection
#    systems in communications networks that require expensive equipment to
#    decipher.
#    
#    "It's close to a scandal," said Stewart Baker, an attorney and former
#    general counsel at the National Security Agency who has been involved
#    with legal challenges to CALEA. "After industry has spent all of this
#    money, it turns out it's generating all of this data that has to be
#    translated by special-purpose machines that have to be bought by local
#    law enforcement. This may have the effect of pricing wiretaps out of the
#    market for a lot of smaller jurisdictions."
#    
#    Baker also said that while CALEA is supposed to apply only to voice
#    communications, the FBI has been "pretty aggressive" when it delves into
#    the packet data realm, "trying to persuade people who build data networks
#    that sooner or later they will have to provide wiretap capability."
#    
#    "A year ago, when times were good, everybody leaned towards the view that
#    it was better to not pick a fight with the FBI," Baker said. "Now it's
#    less clear that people have the funds to spend on development or to
#    purchase this stuff, so there could be a serious conflict over this and
#    there is certainly a difficult question for people who are building
#    Internet Protocol systems."