Interesting People mailing list archives
Wiretap Article
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1993 05:39:10 -0400
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1993 16:49:45 -0400 (EDT) From: denning () cs georgetown edu (Dorothy Denning) Subject: Wiretap Article The following article on wiretap laws and procedures was written in response to the many questions and misunderstandings that have arisen about wiretaps in the context of escrowed encryption as well as Digital Telephony. This article may be distributed. Dorothy Denning denning () cs georgetown edu [ I have included the introductory portion of the paper below. The entire text (~33K bytes) has been placed into the PRIVACY Forum archives. To access: Via Anon FTP: From site "ftp.vortex.com": /privacy/wiretap.laws.Z or: /privacy/wiretap.laws Via e-mail: Send mail to "listserv () vortex com" with the line: get privacy wiretap.laws as the first text in the BODY of your message. Via gopher: From the gopher server on site "gopher.vortex.com" in the "*** PRIVACY Forum ***" area under "wiretap.laws". -- MODERATOR ] ----------------------------------------- WIRETAP LAWS AND PROCEDURES WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TAPS A LINE Donald P. Delaney, Senior Investigator New York State Police Dorothy E. Denning, Professor and Chair Computer Science Department, Georgetown University John Kaye, County Prosecutor Monmouth County, New Jersey Alan R. McDonald, Special Assistant to the Assistant Director Technical Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation September 23, 1993 1. Introduction Although wiretaps are generally illegal in the United States, the federal government and the governments of thirty seven states have been authorized through federal and state legislation to intercept wire and electronic communications under certain stringent rules which include obtaining a court order. These rules have been designed to ensure the protection of individual privacy and Fourth Amendment rights, while permitting the use of wiretaps for investigations of serious criminal activity and for foreign intelligence. This article describes the legal requirements for government interceptions of wire and electronic communications and some of the additional procedures and practices followed by federal and state agencies. The legal requirements are rooted in two pieces of federal legislation: the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act (Title III of the Act (hereafter "Title III")), passed in 1968, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed in 1978. Title III established the basic law for federal and state law enforcement interceptions performed for the purpose of criminal investigations, while FISA established the law for federal-level interceptions performed for intelligence and counterintelligence operations. We will first describe Title III interceptions and then describe FISA interceptions.
Current thread:
- Wiretap Article David Farber (Sep 27)
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- Re: Wiretap Article David Farber (Sep 27)