All carriers are required by law, in short, to allow access to their networks. The government and their silent partner, big buisiness lobbys, managed came up with this ...
>SNIP>
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA)
Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279
SEC. 103. ASSISTANCE CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS.
(a) CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS- Except as provided in subsections (b), (c), and (d) of this section and sections 108(a) and 109(b) and (d), a telecommunications carrier shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services that provide a customer or subscriber with the ability to originate, terminate, or direct communications are capable of--
(3) delivering intercepted communications and call-identifying information to the government, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, in a format such that they may be transmitted by means of equipment, facilities, or services procured by the government to a location other than the premises of the carrier;
>SNIP<
Never mind the obvious debate over the line "pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization" in the above - its meaningless. The fact is that network standardization and "Universal access" required by CALEA law physically exists today. The NSA people should have no trouble navigating the communications network - with or without any telco input, effort or maybe even knowledge in this day and age.
The court order/authorization is supposed keep goverment abuse in check and create a paper trail and finacial record (carriers "charge" the gov't for these services) which forces all parties to be somewhat accountable if not at least identifiable. Bypass this check, causing the paper and money trails to disappear, everybody gets a get out of jail free card.
Administration denies doing anything beyond the required repeat 3x "securing America" speach but can't provide verifiable proof of that since its also a matter of "national security" x3 again. The telcos play dumb and say they were just following the law; unware of any government use or misuse of the network not brought to its attention in the usual "court order" manner. I hope somebody is smart enough to follow the money trail on this one.
The EFF website has additional background and info on both CALEA and surveillance issues.
>SNIP>
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA)
Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279
SEC. 103. ASSISTANCE CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS.
(a) CAPABILITY REQUIREMENTS- Except as provided in subsections (b), (c), and (d) of this section and sections 108(a) and 109(b) and (d), a telecommunications carrier shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services that provide a customer or subscriber with the ability to originate, terminate, or direct communications are capable of--
(3) delivering intercepted communications and call-identifying information to the government, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, in a format such that they may be transmitted by means of equipment, facilities, or services procured by the government to a location other than the premises of the carrier;
>SNIP<
Never mind the obvious debate over the line "pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization" in the above - its meaningless. The fact is that network standardization and "Universal access" required by CALEA law physically exists today. The NSA people should have no trouble navigating the communications network - with or without any telco input, effort or maybe even knowledge in this day and age.
The court order/authorization is supposed keep goverment abuse in check and create a paper trail and finacial record (carriers "charge" the gov't for these services) which forces all parties to be somewhat accountable if not at least identifiable. Bypass this check, causing the paper and money trails to disappear, everybody gets a get out of jail free card.
Administration denies doing anything beyond the required repeat 3x "securing America" speach but can't provide verifiable proof of that since its also a matter of "national security" x3 again. The telcos play dumb and say they were just following the law; unware of any government use or misuse of the network not brought to its attention in the usual "court order" manner. I hope somebody is smart enough to follow the money trail on this one.
The EFF website has additional background and info on both CALEA and surveillance issues.
http://www.eff.org/
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