[Infowarrior] - Reminder: Monday is Wiretap the Internet Day

[Richard Forno]

Reminder: Monday is Wiretap the Internet Day

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/reminder_monday.html

May 14th is the official deadline for cable modem companies, DSL providers,
broadband over powerline, satellite internet companies and some universities
to finish wiring up their networks with FBI-friendly surveillance gear, to
comply with the FCC's expanded interpretation of the Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.

Congress passed CALEA in 1994 to help FBI eavesdroppers deal with digital
telecom technology. The law required phone companies to make their networks
easier to wiretap. The results: on mobile phone networks, where CALEA tech
has 100% penetration, it's credited with boosting the number of
court-approved wiretaps a carrier can handle simultaneously, and greatly
shortening the time it takes to get a wiretap going. Cops can now start
listening in less than a day.

Now that speed and efficiency is coming to internet surveillance. While
CALEA is all about phones, the Justice Department began lobbying the FCC in
2002 to reinterpret the law as applying to the internet as well. The
commission obliged, and last June a divided federal appeals court upheld the
expansion 2-1. (The dissenting judge called the FCC's position
"gobbledygook." But he was outnumbered.)

So, if you're a broadband provider (separately, some VOIP companies are
covered too) Š Hurry! The deadline has already passed to file an FCC form
445 (.pdf), certifying that you're on schedule, or explaining why you're
not. You can also find the 68-page official industry spec for internet
surveillance here. It'll cost you $164.00 to download, but then you'll know
exactly what format to use when delivering customer packets to federal or
local law enforcement, including "e-mail, instant messaging records,
web-browsing information and other information sent or received through a
user's broadband connection, including on-line banking activity."

There are also third party brokers who will handle all this for you for a
fee. 

It's worth noting that the new requirements don't alter the legal standards
for law enforcement to win court orders for internet wiretaps. Fans of CALEA
expansion argue that it therefore won't increase the number of Americans
under surveillance.

That's wrong, of course.  Making surveillance easier and faster gives law
enforcement agencies of all stripes more reason to eschew old-fashioned
police work in favor of spying. The telephone CALEA compliance deadline was
in 2002, and since then the amount of court-ordered surveillance has nearly
doubled from 2,586 applications granted that year, to 4,015 orders in 2006.