FC: CALEA wiretap requirements took effect yesterday

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 17:55:03 -0400
From: James Plummer <jplummer () consumeralert org>
Subject: NCP: Privacy Villain of the Week: CALEA wiretap tax

Privacy Villain of the Week:
CALEA wiretap tax

Consumers looking forward to lower phone bills or the next generation in 
whizbang wireless technology 
<http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/billion_wap.html> may have to 
wait a bit longer. First they have to pay for the privilege of having holes 
deliberately torn out of their phone security.

This Sunday, June 30 is the deadline dictated by the courts and the Federal 
Communications Commission for telecommunications companies to fall into 
full compliance 
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-02-108A1.pdf> with 
the 1994 Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Access Act 
(CALEA)<http://www.askcalea.com/about/pl103414.htm> . Compliance in this 
instance means the installation of an infrastructure giving the FBI the 
access, at the flip of a switch, to "call content" (i.e., conversations) 
and "call data" (i.e., who dialed what when) at the flip of the switch.

This mandated infrastructure obviates the need for the cumbersome process 
of going to a judge, applying for a search warrant and installing a tap 
before listening in. Now, those rather quaint procedures are still on the 
books in some form or another -- it's just that the infrastructure is now 
such that the formal niceties of a legal permission slip aren't strictly 
necessary to listen in on phone calls on the qt. The ready-to-tap system 
leaves consumer phone calls -- including the Social Security and bank 
account numbers entered via touch-tone -- much more vulnerable to other 
parties with the necessary technical know-how. 
<http://lists.jammed.com/politech/2001/12/0066.html> The potential for 
identity fraud and outright theft is thus increased.

Now, of course, all of this doesn't come cheap. One small 
telephone/Internet provider in Kansas told PCWorld, "We were looking at 
getting into video, providing movies, cable, and entertainment content," 
but the costs of the CALEA compliance have pushed that back one or two 
years. 
<http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,101837,tk,dn061102X,00.asp> 
Costs of compliance have been quoted as anywhere from $15,000 to $75,000 
per switch. VeriSign, which is looking to provide CALEA services to telecom 
providers estimates that in addition to the upgrade costs, maintenance of 
CALEA systems will run about "at a minimum $150,000 annually." 
<http://www.verisign.com/corporate/news/2002/pr_20020603a.html>

And of course these higher costs will restrict supply and raise prices 
above what they otherwise would have been. But it's all for a good cause -- 
the easy listening pleasure of any number of Privacy Villains of the Week.


The Privacy Villain of the Week and Privacy Hero of the Month are projects 
of the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group. Privacy Villain audio 
features are now available from FCF News on Demand. 
<http://www.fcfnews.com/> For more information on the NCC Privacy Group, 
see www.nccprivacy.org or contact James Plummer at 202-467-5809 or 
jplummer () consumeralert org .




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