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Details On 2001 Wiretaps

Posted by timothy on from the don't-worry-just-us-eavesdroppers dept.

gjhart writes with this excerpt from a New York Times article: "...a report issued in late May sheds some light on who, in fact, ought to be worried that someone is listening in on the line ... Despite government concerns about the use of encryption technology by criminals, it was encountered in only 16 cases last year, and in each instance, investigators were able to decode the communication."

7 comments

  1. Encryption not in Patriot Act by Bouncings · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I think we should read something into the fact that encryption was not in the "Patriot Act" (you know, the anti-liberty, pro-FBI bill passed with no debate last year?). No one seems to be really pushing for more encryption controls as strongly as the rest of the laundry list. Perhaps the government has found some cracks, and would like to give the public a false sense of security?

    My two cents.

    --
    -- Ken Kinder ken@_nospam_kenkinder.com http://kenkinder.com/
  2. More details available at Politech... by Arthur+Dent · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This report gives more details:
    Federal and state police legally intercepted approximately 2.3 million
    conversations and pager communications in 2001, spending about $72
    million in the process, the federal court system's annual report says.

    The true number of authorized wiretaps is likely to be far greater.
    This week's figures do not include all U.S. Customs surveillance --
    some of their records were lost in the destruction of the World Trade
    Center -- or those super-secret investigations done under the Foreign
    Intelligence Surveillance Act.

    The total number of wiretaps jumped 25 percent from 2000. Drug-related
    crimes were the cause of 78 percent of them.

    And this is the interesting bit:

    Only court-authorized wiretaps appear in the report, not illegal ones performed
    in violation of state and federal law. In 1999, the Los Angeles County Public
    Defender's office estimated that the local police illegally under-reported actual
    wiretaps by a factor of ten.
    1. Re:More details available at Politech... by caca_phony · · Score: 2, Interesting
      From the article you linked to:

      Here are the raw numbers: 1,491 wiretap applications were authorized, each intercepting an average of 1,565 conversations. No judge anywhere in the United States denied a police wiretap request. State courts authorized 67 percent of wiretaps. The average length was about two months, and 68 percent of taps were on "portable" devices, such as pagers and cell phones.

      I don't know if I should be upset that so many conversations are listened to, or amused that they spent as much time listening to "how much for a dime bag" as they did. I wonder what's up with the sixteen people using encryption? Was it pig latin or omethingsay?

      --
      ...and this lie crawls out of its mouth: 'I, the state, am the people.'
    2. Re:More details available at Politech... by isorox · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, this bit interestes me the most


      This week's figures do not include all U.S. Customs surveillance --
      some of their records were lost in the destruction of the World Trade
      Center


      Hasnt anyone in america heard of off site backups?

    3. Re:More details available at Politech... by Arthur+Dent · · Score: 2, Funny
      Sure they have.

      Offsite for Tower one means Tower two and vice-versa right? :)

  3. Except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >.. and i'll sue you under the dmca. fuckers. they
    >make the rules, i just play by 'em.
    Rules don't apply to those who enforce the rules :)

    What's scarier than anything is that there's not false positives. Nobody declined any request for a wiretap. Pretty much if they bother to ask for it, they get it. Nothing is that fine-tuned. The illegal taps are used to magically discover leads, of other information to get (ie: where the body is stored) - which is a problem. How can you find out that cops are breaking the law? What's really needed are some set-ups, and then arrest the cops on suspicion of illegal wire-tapping. But man, how to make that stick....

    -- Ender, Duke_of_URL