By Rachel Chalmers
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have asked a federal appeals court to block new rules that could let the FBI dictate how America’s communications infrastructure should be designed. In a petition to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the groups have challenged the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994, which requires telecommunications companies to enable wiretapping for the purpose of law enforcement. In the five years since it was passed, the FBI and industry have been unable to agree on how to interpret this Act. The Bureau wants new powers under CALEA to track the physical locations of cell phone users and to monitor internet traffic. In an August 1999 ruling, the Federal Communications Commission supported the FBI, but the ACLU and EPIC say the Commission has placed too broad an interpretation on the Act.
EPIC’s David Sobel points out that the Internet Engineering Task Force voted last week not to include wiretapping capabilities in new internet standards. The IETF membership that voted rejected the proposal partially in the belief that the law does not require any new capabilities on the internet, he told ComputerWire. We agree, and believe that the FCC decision has interpreted CALEA too broadly. The IETF vote is consistent with our view that CALEA intended for very limited situation and should be applied very sparingly. Sobel says it’s not surprising that an opportunistic FBI should try to extend a law that was passed five years ago, but he insists that law enforcement officials should not be able to do this without Congressional consent. This is something that Congress would really have to go back and look at, he said. Congress said in ’94 that CALEA would not apply to the internet. It was only supposed to apply to voice communications. Today, more and more voice traffic is being carried on the net. The line is getting blurred.
