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IP: FBI Unveils National Wiretap
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 16:15:40 -0500
The New York Times reports today that the FBI has proposed "a national wiretapping system of unprecedented size and scope that would give law enforcement officials the capacity to monitor simultaneously as many as one out of every 100 phone lines" in some regions of the country. ("FBI Wants to Vastly Increase Wiretapping," NYT, Nov. 2, 1995, at A1) The story follows the October publication in the Federal Register of the FBI plans to implement the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, the controversial "digital telephony" bill that was opposed by many groups last year but supported by an industry association called the "Digital Privacy and Security Working Group" after the government put up $500,000,000 to pay for the new surveillance features. (See EPIC Alert 2.12) The Times article also notes that there is now some question about whether the law will ever go into effect. A provision to provide funding was deleted last week after "several freshman Republicans, including Representative Bob Barr of Georgia, a former federal prosecutor, said he objected to the way the money for wiretapping would be raised and that he had concerns about how the FBI might use such a sweeping surveillance ability." The article also says that "The scope of the FBI plan has startled industry telephone executives, who said it was difficult to estimate how much it would ultimately cost to carry out the capacity increases." EPIC is urging the on-line community to object to implementation of the wiretap plan. More information can be found at our web page: http://www.epic.org/privacy/wiretap/. Marc Rotenberg rotenberg () epic org
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