Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: CDT/EFF Petition to FCC
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 15:35:34 -0400
Civil Liberties Groups Ask FCC to Block Expansion of FBI Electronic Surveillance Authority The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation today filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission seeking to block the FBI from obtaining a major expansion of government wiretapping authority under the "Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act" (CALEA). CDT and EFF allege that the FBI has tried to use the 1994 law to force the telecommunications industry to install intrusive surveillance features that threaten individual privacy and violate the scope of the 1994 law. Among other things, current plans for CALEA would provide law enforcement with: * Access to the contents of digital messages without a search warrant - Under the implementation scheme developed by the FBI and Industry, law enforcement agencies would receive the full contents of digital communications when they were only authorized to receive signaling or addressing information. This would completely obliterate long standing privacy protections which separate content from signaling information. * Real-time location tracking information on wireless phone users - The FBI is seeking technical standards which would effectively turn the cellular network into a nationwide, real-time location tracking system. "The proposal threatens to undermine long standing Fourth Amendment protections for private communications by granting the FBI access to the contents of digital communications without probable cause that a crime has been committed. " said Jerry Berman, CDT Executive Director. "Citizens would have to rely on the good faith of law enforcement agents to not look at the contents of digital communications delivered to them under the lower standard," Berman added. CDT also expressed concern that the FBI's proposal for real-time location tracking through wireless networks would dramatically expand law enforcement power. "CALEA explicitly prohibited any expansion of law enforcement surveillance authority, " said Daniel Weitzner, CDT Deputy Director. "The FBI's two year effort to force the industry to adopt standards that amount to a broad expansion of government surveillance power is a clear violation of both the spirit and intent of the law." Weitzner added. Enacted in 1994, CALEA was intended to ensure that law enforcement could continue to conduct electronic surveillance in the face of changing communications technologies, but explicitly prohibited any expansion of law enforcement surveillance authority. The law requires telephone companies to take affirmative steps to protect the privacy of communications that the government is not authorized to intercept. The law defers, in the first instance, to industry to develop technical standards for meeting the requirements, and allows "any person" to challenge the standards before the FCC if they are deficient or fail to protect privacy. CDT and EFF filed the petition with the FCC under this provision. The full text of the CDT and EFF petition, along with detailed background information on CALEA and the standards setting process, are available online at http://www.cdt.org/digi_tele/ The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is a non-profit public interest organization working to advance constitutional civil liberties and democratic values in new communications technologies. CDT staff worked on CALEA when it was before the Congress in 1994 and fought successfully to ensure that the law did not expand law enforcement surveillance authority and contained numerous public accountability provisions. -- 30 --
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