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              | Date: 1999-09-01 
 
 US: Handys werden Ortungsgeraete fuer FBI-.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.- -.-. --.-
 
 GSM Provider müßen ihre Netzwerke so modifizieren, dass
 aus Handys Ortungsgeräte werden, dazu will das FBI noch
 permanenten Zugang in die Netze -  CALEA [US] grüßt
 ENFOPOL [EU] . Die Civil Libertarians laufen Sturm gegen
 die Bewilligung der Federal Communications Commission.
 
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 (1) FCC MANDATES NEW TELEPHONE SURVEILLANCE
 FEATURES
 
 On Friday, August 27, the Federal Communications
 Commission (FCC) ordered the nation's telephone companies
 to modify their switching equipment to provide more
 information to government agencies conducting electronic
 surveillance.  The Commission largely rejected privacy
 concerns and aligned with the Federal Bureau of
 Investigation, which had sought the enhanced monitoring
 capabilities under the 1994 Communications Assistance for
 Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
 
 The decision was the latest step in a long-running struggle
 over the surveillance potential of communications technology.
 CALEA was enacted in 1994 after the FBI complained to
 Congress that new digital technology and other advanced
 services would soon make it impossible to carry out wiretaps
 and other electronic surveillance.  The FBI originally sought
 direct control over phone system design.  Congress refused
 to grant the Bureau that kind of power, but adopted CALEA
 with the intent of balancing law enforcement, privacy and
 industry interests.  Congress made it clear that CALEA was
 intended to preserve but not enhance government monitoring
 capabilities.  The Act left design decisions to the telephone
 industry, subject to FCC review.
 
 However, soon after CALEA was enacted, the FBI began
 insisting on very specific surveillance features, including
 some never before available to the government. After industry
 worked with law enforcement agencies to draft technical
 standards to put CALEA into effect, the FBI claimed the
 industry plans did not go far enough and petitioned the FCC
 to order additional, specific surveillance features.  CDT
 claimed that the industry plan failed to protect privacy and
 opposed the FBI's add-ons.
 ___________________________________________________
 ______________
 
 (2) TURNING CELL PHONES INTO TRACKING DEVICES;
 OTHER FEATURES
 
 The most immediately disturbing element of the FCC's ruling
 was its requirement that cellular and other wireless phone
 companies provide the capability to identify where their
 customers are at the beginning and end of every call,
 effectively turning wireless phones into tracking devices. In
 1994, FBI Director Louis Freeh testified twice before
 Congress that CALEA did not cover this kind of location
 information.  While many cellular systems already have
 some ability to locate callers, CDT argued to the FCC that
 this should not be a mandatory element of system design.
 CDT was concerned that, as the technology evolves, the FBI
 is likely to seek more and more precise location information.
 The FCC ignored the legislative history and rejected CDT's
 concerns
 
 In addition, for both wireline and wireless systems, the FCC
 ruled that six other specific surveillance features sought by
 the FBI were required by CALEA. One of the six requires
 carriers to ensure that the government will be able to
 continue listening to those on a conference call after the
 criminal suspect has dropped off the call. Another add-on
 guarantees the government access to credit card numbers
 and bank account data generated when a user punches
 numbers on a telephone. Other add-ons ensure government
 access to the detailed signaling information generated in
 connection with calls, information that law enforcement would
 obtain under a legal standard lower than the one required to
 conduct a wiretap. CDT and the telephone industry had
 argued that none of these items was required by CALEA.
 
 Carriers are currently required to comply with most aspects
 of CALEA, including the location mandate, by June 30, 2000.
 The other features required by the FCC last week must be
 available to the government by September 30, 2001.
 
 ___________________________________________________
 ______________
 
 (3) PACKET SWITCHING - CALEA'S SLEEPER ISSUE
 
 One CALEA issue of immense importance has received little
 press attention: how to conduct electronic surveillance in
 packet environments.  Packet technology, until recently used
 mainly on the Internet, breaks communication into many
 small packets, each consisting of some addressing
 information and some content.  For efficiency's sake, the
 packets may be transported by various routes, and are
 reassembled at their intended destination to create a
 coherent communication.  Packet technology is becoming
 increasingly important for voice communications, posing the
 risk that the government will obtain access to the content
 portion of packets when it has only sati
 sfied the lower legal standard for intercepting the call routing or addressing information.
 
 CDT argued that CALEA imposes on carriers an affirmative
 obligation to design their equipment, to the extent technically
 reasonable, to withhold content from the government when
 the government has not met the legal standard to intercept it.
 Industry responded that carriers should be allowed to
 disclose everything to law enforcement, including content,
 and rely on the government not to read (or listen to) what it is
 has no authority to intercept.
 
 The FCC declined to require carriers to protect the privacy of
 packet communications that the government is not
 authorized to intercept. Instead, the FCC requested the
 industry to report on what steps can be taken to protect the
 privacy of packet communications.  Last Fall, the
 Commission asked the same question and industry said that
 protecting privacy was too hard.  This leaves it to CDT to
 prove to the industry that the technology can be designed to
 protect privacy.
 
 Mehr
 http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_5.21.html
 
 relayed by Ari Schwartz ari@cdt.org
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 edited by
 published on: 1999-09-01
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