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IP: ISPI Clips 6.28: Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines
From: "Ama-gi ISPI" <[email protected]>
Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 6.28: Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 00:13:40 -0800
To: <[email protected]>
ISPI Clips 6.28: Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines
News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI)
Wednesday November 11, 1998
[email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This From: WIRED News, November 10, 1998
http://www.wired.com
Wiretapping Internet Phone Lines
http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16146.html
by
Declan McCullagh
A federal wiretapping law designed to let police snoop on telephone calls
could have profound implications for companies that offer Internet phone
service. Then again, it might not affect them at all.
The 1994 Digital Telephony law, which requires telecommunications companies
to wire surveillance technology into their networks, could force Internet
telephony firms to configure their systems to be easily wiretapped by law
enforcement agencies. A Federal Communications Commission official, who
declined to be identified, said the FCC is trying to decide how the law
should apply to IP telephony and what types of Internet phone calls should
be covered.
In a report
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Notices/1998/fcc98282.txt ]
released Thursday, the FCC said the law applies to "packet-switching
technology" that is "used to provide telecommunications services."
"It's a major issue that has to be sorted out," said James Dempsey, senior
staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology. "What side of
the line does Internet telephony fall on? [Companies] should definitely
wake up and pay attention."
The wiretapping law, also known as the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act, or CALEA, gave the FCC the authority to set standards and
timetables. The agency said in September that companies must comply with
CALEA by 30 June 2000.
The FCC has tentatively ruled that IP telephony using computers is an
"information service" and, therefore, not covered by CALEA.
But the agency has also said that phone-to-phone IP telephony falls into
the category of
[ http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Reports/fcc98067.txt ]telecommu
nications services. That category includes firms like IDT and Qwest, which
allow long-distance customers to phone a local gateway and forward those
calls over the Internet to a gateway at the other end.
"I think, fundamentally, this is one of the sleeper issues that is going to
be affecting the Internet telephony industry into the year 2000 and
beyond," said Jeff Pulver, co-founder of the VON Coalition
http://www.von.org/ ].
"We all need to be aware of what the legal issues are," Pulver said. "I'm
all for what I call 'intelligent regulation.' If we need to comply, then
damn it, we should comply. Ignorance is no excuse."
"Internet telephony will eventually be included in CALEA," said Alyson
Ziegler, director of legislative affairs for the United States Telephone
Association [ http://www.usta.org/ ] "It's a matter of time."
CALEA's backers say the law was designed to allow authorities to monitor
conversations surreptitiously on digital phone lines just as they are now
able to tap into analog phone lines. But privacy advocates oppose the
measure, arguing that it expands the government's surveillance power.
"This is something we've been warning about for years, that the convergence
between these technologies will make the distinctions originally
contemplated in CALEA ultimately moot," said David Banisar, a lawyer at the
Electronic Privacy Information Center. "CALEA will be applied to the Net
regardless of what the intent of the law actually was."
Even before CALEA became law, indications surfaced that law enforcement
would like it to include the Internet. When asked about that possibility
during a hearing in August 1994, FBI Director Louis Freeh replied, "It's
certainly a possibility -- if, God forbid, someone blows up the World Trade
Tower using a PC to PC network."
Making an already prickly issue even thornier is the fact that some IP
telephony companies use encryption to scramble conversations. NetSpeak, for
example, uses RSA encryption [ http://www.netspeak.com/ ].
If two IP phone customers are using public key cryptography to chat in a
way that even the IP telephony company can't decode, law enforcement agents
are out of luck -- one reason why the FBI has lobbied to ban the
manufacture and distribution of encryption devices without key escrow
backdoors.
Not all companies are complaining about CALEA.
Aplio [ http://www.aplio.com/ ] CEO Olivier Zitoun believes his company's
products fall into the FCC's definition of computer-to-computer IP
telephony. Aplio sells boxes that can be plugged into normal touch-tone
phones and used to call an Internet provider, which routes calls over the
Net.
"We are very different than other phone-to-phone devices or solutions,"
Zitoun said. "In a way, the discussion of IP-telephony regulation doesn't
really apply to us."
Copyright � 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc.
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