[E-PRV] Internet phone wiretapping ("Psst! The FBI is

[Seth David Schoen]

Having Trouble on the Line", Aug. 15)


David Farber writes:


>Can I get a copy for IP
>

The original article is at

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1090908,00.html
(subscription required)

Here's the letter we sent:

    Your account of FBI efforts to embed wiretapping into the design of
    new Internet communication technologies ("Psst! The FBI is Having
    Trouble on the Line," Notebook, August 15) is in error.

    You claim that police "can't tap into [Internet] conversations or
    identify the location of callers, even with court orders."

    That is false. Internet service providers and VoIP companies have
    consistently responded to such orders and turned over information
    in their possession. There is no evidence that law enforcement is
    having any trouble obtaining compliance.

    But more disturbingly, you omit entirely any reference to the
    grave threat these FBI initiatives pose to the personal privacy
    and security of innocent Americans. The technologies currently
    used to create wiretap-friendly computer networks make the people
    on those networks more pregnable to attackers who want to steal
    their data or personal information. And at a time when many of our
    most fundamental consititutional rights are being stripped away in
    the name of fighting terrorism, you implicitly endorse opening yet
    another channel for potential government abuse.

    The legislative history of the Communications Assistance for Law
    Enforcement Act (CALEA) shows that Congress recognized the danger
    of giving law enforcement this kind of surveillance power "in the
    face of increasingly powerful and personally revealing
technologies"
    (H.R. Rep. No. 103-827, 1994 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3489, 3493 [1994] [House
    Report]). The law explicitly exempts so-called information
services;
    law enforcement repeatedly assured civil libertarians that the
    Internet would be excluded. Yet the FBI and FCC have now betrayed
    that promise and stepped beyond the law, demanding that Internet
    software be redesigned to facilitate eavesdropping. In the coming
    months, we expect the federal courts to rein in these dangerously
    expansive legal intepretations.

--
Seth Schoen
Staff Technologist                                schoen at eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation                    http://www.eff.org/
454 Shotwell Street, San Francisco, CA  94110     1 415 436 9333 x107



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