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The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 3, Number 12
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A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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CDT POLICY POST Volume 3, Number 12 August 11, 1997
CONTENTS: (1) Civil Liberties Groups Ask FCC To Block FBI Electronic
Surveillance Proposal
(2) Summary of CDT/EFF FCC Petition
(3) CALEA Background and The Industry Standards Setting Process
(4) How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe
(5) About CDT, contacting us
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_____________________________________________________________________________
(1) CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS ASK FCC TO BLOCK FBI ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE
PROPOSAL
The Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation today filed a petition with the Federal Communications
Commission to block the FBI from using the 1994 "Digital Telephony" law to
expand government surveillance powers.
The law, officially known as the "Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act" (CALEA), was intended to preserve law enforcement
wiretapping ability in the face of changes in communications technologies.
In their filing, CDT and EFF argue that the FBI has tried to use CALEA to
expand its surveillance capabilities by forcing telephone companies to
install intrusive and expensive surveillance features that threaten privacy
and violate the scope of the law.
The CDT/EFF petition follows a July 16 petition by the Cellular
Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), which asked the FCC to
intervene in the implementation of CALEA. Under a provision of CALEA
designed to ensure public accountability over law enforcement surveillance
ability, CDT and EFF urged the Commission to accept the CTIA request and
expand its inquiry to cover privacy issues.
CALEA specifically prevents law enforcement from dictating the design of
telecommunications networks. Instead, CALEA created a public process for
developing technical standards through industry standards bodies. However,
since CALEA was enacted, the FBI has sought to force industry to agree to
standards that would dramatically expand law enforcement surveillance
power.
The full text of the CDT/EFF petition, links to the CTIA petition, as well
as background on the debate over CALEA implementation, are available online
at http://www.cdt.org/digi_tele/
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(2) SUMMARY OF CDT/EFF FCC PETITION
CDT and EFF allege that the FBI is using CALEA to expand its surveillance
ability well beyond what the law allows and in ways that pose serious risks
to privacy:
* ACCESS TO CONTENTS OF DIGITAL MESSAGES WITHOUT SEARCH WARRANT:
In packet switching systems (currently used on the Internet, but
likely to be the future of voice switching as well), the FBI wants
delivery of the entire packet data stream in response to a pen
register order, which is issued on the most minimal of justifications,
relying on law enforcement to "minimize" the content to get at the
addressing information. This would effectively obliterate the
distinction between call contents and 'signaling' information, and
would amount to a substantial expansion of law enforcement
surveillance authority, and falls well beyond the intent of CALEA.
CDT and EFF urge the Commission to delete this provision from the
proposed standards. This is one of the most far reaching aspects of
CALEA implementation.
* REAL-TIME LOCATION TRACKING INFORMATION ON WIRELESS PHONE USERS: CDT
and EFF asked the FCC to block FBI and industry proposals for
location information in wireless networks. The proposed standard
would effectively turn the cellular network into a nationwide, real
time location tracking system. CDT and EFF argue that the proposal
goes too far and violates CALEA.
* MONITORING OF ALL PARTICIPANTS IN A CONFERENCE CALL, EVEN AFTER THE
TARGET IS NO LONGER PARTICIPATING: The FBI wants to expand the
standard to include this feature. Such monitoring, CDT and EFF
argue, would violate the limits of the Constitution's Fourth
Amendment.
* ACCESS TO A BROADER RANGE OF INFORMATION UNDER SO-CALLED PEN REGISTERS
AND TRAP AND TRACE DEVICES: Law enforcement can obtain approval for
these devices, which are supposed to collect only dialed number
information, under a very low legal standard, much lower than the
showing required to intercept the content of communications. The FBI
is urging the industry to put more detailed "profiling" information on
the signaling channel, on the assumption that it would be accessible
under the lower legal standard. CDT and EFF urge the Commission to
address privacy concerns about access to transactional data.
Specifically, CDT and EFF ask the Commission to require the telephone
companies to ensure that law enforcement only gets the information it
is authorized to receive.
CDT and EFF believe that the FCC must intervene to ensure that privacy is
protected as CALEA is implemented.
The full text of the filing is available online at
http://www.cdt.org/digi_tele/
________________________________________________________________________
(3) CALEA BACKGROUND AND THE INDUSTRY STANDARDS SETTING PROCESS
The digital telephony law, officially known as the Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), was adopted in 1994 and
requires telephone companies to ensure that their systems can accommodate
law enforcement wiretaps. The law also includes a privacy provision,
requiring law enforcement and industry to implement the surveillance
requirements in a manner that "protect[s] the privacy and security of
communications ... not authorized to be intercepted."
CALEA defers in the first instance to industry standards-setting bodies to
develop technical standards for implementing the law's general surveillance
assistance requirements. Industry bodies have developed a draft standard,
to which the FBI vociferously objected on the grounds that it did not give
law enforcement enough surveillance powers. The FBI's objections have
prevented the adoption of a consensus standard.
The CDT/EFF filing relies on Section 107(b) of CALEA, which provides:
"If industry associations or standards-setting organizations
fail to issue technical requirements or standards or if a
Government agency or any other person believes that such
requirements or standards are deficient, the agency or person
may petition the Commission to establish, by rule, technical
requirements or standards that ... (2) protect the privacy
and security of communications not authorized to be
intercepted ... "
The Commission has yet to decide whether it will address CALEA issues. The
Commission may solicit further comments on the CTIA, CDT, and EFF
pleadings, issue a Notice of Inquiry, or issue a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking. CALEA is scheduled to take full effect on October 25, 1998
with our without a standard being adopted.
_____________________________________________________________________________
(4) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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_____________________________________________________________________________
(5) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop
and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and
constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications
technologies.
Contacting us:
General information: info@cdt.org
World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/
FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/
Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology
1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006
(v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968
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End Policy Post 3.12 08/11/97
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