[Ecommerce] VoIP/CALEA: EFF, Others Call for Reversal of FCC CALEA Expansion for VoIP

[Seth Johnson]

> http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004624.php


May 03, 2006

EFF Urges Reversal of FCC's Forcing Internet Services To Be
Wiretap-Friendly


On May 5, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral
arguments in a suit brought by EFF and a coalition of public
interest, industry, and academic groups challenging the FCC's
unjustified expansion of the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act (CALEA)
(http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/CALEA/). By forcing
broadband Internet and interconnected voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) services to become wiretap-friendly, the FCC
ignored CALEA's plain language and threatened privacy, security,
and innovation.

When Congress controversially passed CALEA in 1994 and gave the
FCC powers to mandate backdoors in traditional telephony systems,
it expressly exempted "information services" such as the
Internet. Yet after a petition from the FBI and other federal law
enforcement agencies, the FCC ruled last year that companies like
Vonage and private institutions that provide Net access must
redesign their networks to facilitate wiretaps. On Wednesday, the
FCC announced that these service providers would have to foot the
bill -- an estimated $7 billion dollars for the universities
alone
(http://news.com.com/FCC+approves+Net-wiretapping+taxes/2100-1028_3-6067971.html?tag=nefd.lede).

The FCC completely failed to give the law enforcement petitions
the "hard look" that the public deserves when massive government
surveillance proposals are on the table. While the FCC's unfunded
tech mandate will undoubtedly harm the public, the government
made no showing that there was any need to extend CALEA to
Internet services at all.

Indeed, just this past Monday, the Administrative Office of the
U.S. Courts issued its annual wiretap report -- which revealed
that only 8 court orders for Internet wiretaps were issued in
2005, down from 12 orders in each of the years 2003 and 2004 --
and the report contains no indication that law enforcement had
any problems in conducting these electronic surveillances.

Petitioners in American Council on Education v. FCC include the
American Library Association, the Center for Democracy and
Technology, Electronic Privacy Information Center, EDUCAUSE,
Pulver.com, and Sun Microsystems.

Read the petitioners' opening and reply briefs here
(http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/CALEA/20060126ace-opening-brief.pdf)
(http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/CALEA/20060314calea.pdf).

Posted by Derek Slater at 04:27 PM | CALEA
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