|
Cryptome DVDs. Donate
$25 for two DVDs of the Cryptome collection of 47,000 files from June 1996
to January 2009 (~6.9 GB). Click Paypal or mail check/MO made out to John
Young, 251 West 89th Street, New York, NY 10024. The collection includes
all files of cryptome.org, cryptome.info, jya.com, cartome.org,
eyeball-series.org and iraq-kill-maim.org, and
23,100 (updated)
pages of counter-intelligence dossiers declassified by the US Army Information
and Security Command, dating from 1945 to 1985.The DVDs will be sent anywhere
worldwide without extra cost. |
|
12 August 1997
The New York Times, August 11, 1997, p. D2.
Digital-Age Wiretapping Plan By F.B.I. Draws Opposition
By John Markoff
Privacy advocates plan to challenge the F.B.I.'s proposal for high-technology
wiretapping today, contending that the agency is seeking powers never intended
by Congress when it enacted a 1994 law to bring wiretapping into the digital
age.
The criticism is sure to add to the disagreements surrounding the Government's
effort to define standards for digital voice and data networks in a way that
would permit police and F.B.I. agents to continue to eavesdrop on suspected
criminals.
In addition to privacy groups, phone companies have challenged the law,
contending that the Government is forcing them to open their new generation
of communications networks in a way that exceeds legal and constitutional
limits.
The Communications for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 calls for spending at
least $500 million to modify the nation's phone network to allow continued
wiretapping by law enforcement groups and specifies a standard-setting process
to redesign the equipment.
The law was passed after Federal Bureau of Investigation officials contended
that new communication technologies were outstripping their ability to identify
and monitor suspected criminals who were using cellular and other communication
gear to avoid surveillance.
But two privacy groups--the Center for Democracy and Technology and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation--plan to petition the Federal Communications
Commission today, challenging the proposed standard. They argue that it might
force communications companies using next-generation networks to, in effect,
turn over the full content of client communications when the Government is
authorized to intercept only the addressing or signaling data.
United States law requires that law enforcement officials who wish to eavesdrop
on the phone calls of suspected criminals gain a warrant approved by a judge
for each individual who is wiretapped.
In contrast, law enforcement agencies can record dialing or signaling information
under a "pen register" order, which is issued without probable cause and
without judicial review. From 1990 to 1994, the annual number of wiretaps
ranged from 566 to 1,154, while the number of pen register intercepts was
far higher, according to an F.B.I. report to Congress.
But the privacy groups argue that after the adoption of next-generation voice
and data networks it will be impossible to separate signalling or routing
information from the actual content of communications, meaning that law
enforcement agencies could end up, in effect, wiretapping when they are
authorized only to get addressing or signaling data.
The privacy groups' concerns center on an important difference in the way
that these new types of networks will operate. The nation's telephone networks
are now based on a "circuit-switched" design in which voice communications
travel on a separate channel from the calling-number information. That makes
it simple to segregate information given to law enforcement officials.
But the Internet sends all data as a stream of digital information, in which
routing and message content are bundled together in a series of "packets."
All major phone companies are now designing next-generation networks that
will transmit voice, video and data communications using Internet standards,
or "packet switching," rather than circuit switching. Many telecommunications
experts believe that in the future virtually all voice and data communications
will be carried by packet switching networks.
"In the proposed standard, industry and F.B.I. have tacitly agreed not to
try to insure that law enforcement agencies get only the information appropriate
to the level of authorization in hand," the groups assert in comments to
be filed with the F.C.C.
Last month, representatives of the cellular phone industry asked the F.C.C.
to arbitrate a dispute between industry and law enforcement officials about
the design of network systems. The move followed a series of sometimes bitter
meetings between industry and law enforcement representatives about how much
information must be made available to law enforcement agencies and how quickly
the redesigned switching systems must provide it.
F.B.I. officials have said they are willing to work with industry to compromise
on the design of the technology necessary to permit them to continue to wiretap
in the digital age.
For background see:
http://jya.com/fbi101695.txt
http://jya.com/fbi041096.txt
http://jya.com/fbi110896.txt
http://jya.com/fbi111596.txt
http://jya.com/fbi111996.txt
http://jya.com/fbi042497.txt
http://jya.com/fbi050697.txt