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Time Warner To Comply With Wiretap Law

rekkanoryo writes "Time Warner Cable is taking steps to comply with the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act, which requires telecommunications providers 'to help police conduct electronic surveilance.' Note that broadband providers are not yet required to comply with the law, but the FBI has stated its desire to force broadband providers under the law's jurisdiction. Invasion of privacy anyone?"

49 of 452 comments (clear)

  1. Just another step closer by Sir+Haxalot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    to 1984.

    --
    I have over 70 freaks, do you?
    1. Re:Just another step closer by DR+SoB · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Agreed. 2004 = 1984 + 20

      To all those who doubted Big Brother is watching. Seriously, they have been doing this for YEARS now they just want to justify it.

      "The truth will set you free"

      --
      Mod +5 Drunk
    2. Re:Just another step closer by FLEB · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ...and the resultant inability to wiretap will make encryption illegal.

      --
      Information wants to be free.
      Entertainment wants to be paid.
      You just want to be cheap.
    3. Re:Just another step closer by kramer2718 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're right that encryption is an option, but as a consumer, I don't want to pay for the FBI's backdoors. Furthermore, this request will have NO effect on terrorists (who are the supposed target). Terrorists already use encryption. It's more likely to make J. Edgar Hoover style tricks easier.

      It MIGHT help nab criminals who are well less organized than terrorists, but is that really reason enough to re-engineer our routers?

  2. Re:Canadian laws by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It too cold up there, move to mexico.

  3. PGP by slavefishy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now would be the time to get using PGP and similar software.

    1. Re:PGP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      > I seem to recall that in the UK, under the RIP Act, the government can demand
      > your private key if they suspect there's worthwhile evidence there.

      I'm sure the sort of people who are crazy enough to kill themselves in a bid to kill as many civilians as possible are going to be concerned about that.

    2. Re:PGP by dillon_rinker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not sure you realize it, but you are seriously considering getting the FBI to bother you. If you provide a centralized service that makes it impossible for them to wiretap people, they will focus their efforts on your service. Centralizing people's encryption gives them a single point of failure.

      I'd also point out that if you are a lone individual and not a corporation with a pack of lawyers, the FBI can lean on you hard. Real hard. It doesn't matter if their actions are illegal if you can't prove it. Lots of luck.

    3. Re:PGP by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Now would be the time to get using PGP and similar software.

      Not a bad point at all - Such tools have existed for well over a decade, yet very few people use them. Time to really get on the ball and start teaching our friends and relatives - Even if we make it totally automated at their end, the goal has changed somewhat. Thanks to this new law, it doesn't really matter if physical access to either end compromises the connection, we just need to make sure nothing goes out in cleartext. So, even something as simple as "Okay Mom, if a little box pops up saying something about GPG, just type my birthday, okay?" would represent a dramatic improvement over our current situation.

      However, we need to make the use of encryption more ubiquitous than just email. For example, almost no traffic leaves my house that doesn't use SSL. However, for *incoming*, therein we have the biggest flaw in security. Currently, we have almost no way to prevent our ISP (or the feds through them) from watching our web browsing. Even using an anonymizing proxy doesn't help much, if the traffic itself comes to me in the clear.

      Ah, I babble a bit. Overall, I just want to make the point that we need to stop talking about how we can get around stupid laws like this with encryption, and start doing so, before it becomes a real problem. So, anyone reading this... Don't put it off until tomorrow. Install GPG on the PCs of everyone you know today. Tell their browser to use an anonymizing proxy that always uses https (Do any? If you know of one, please reply with a link). Outright remove any telnet and FTP clients from their machine, and replace them with SSH and SFTP clients. Kill AIM, and replace it with the encryption-enabled version of Trillian.

      We need to make sure that everything going in or out uses encryption.


      As an aside, if everyone used encrypted email, spam would cease to exist. It just costs to much CPU time for the spammers to encrypt ten million messages, thus making a "perfect" email filter as simple as dumping any unencrypted messages. Who needs Bill Gates? We just need to start using the tools already available.

    4. Re:PGP by iminplaya · · Score: 2, Insightful

      All this crypto stuff is real nice and all, but if "they" want the info, you will be locked up until you give up the key. Besides just watching where the traffic goes tells them more than you can hide with crypto. In this war on privacy, the ISP can be a real weak link in privacy protection. So we need to ditch the ISP. The only way I know how is going truly wireless in some P2P kind of way. This could stop any tracing of traffic. I'm aware of the latency involved with all the "island hopping" that would be necessary to carry this out, but I think things like that can be worked out over time. Of course, another solution would be to send out so much "chaf", they could never sort it out. Disinformation can work both ways.

      --
      What?
    5. Re:PGP by pla · · Score: 2, Insightful

      All this crypto stuff is real nice and all, but if "they" want the info, you will be locked up until you give up the key.

      True enough. However, at least currently, locking a person up until they reveal their key would require at least a court order (or even an actual trial? Not sure on that one).

      Providing an easy passive backdoor into every ISP, on the other hand, makes it far to easy to casually snoop around looking for illegal material to follow up on.

      If the FBI needs to investigate someone for an actual crime, I have no problem with them having the ability to obtain all relevant evidence. Having all the evidence available can prove innocence (funny idea, in a system that presumes innocence until proven guilty) just as readily as it can prove guilt. Not a problem.

      Without an active investigation, probably cause, and a court order, however, we formerly had protection under the fourth amendment from precisely the activities such ISP backdoors would permit. that I have a problem with.


      just watching where the traffic goes tells them more than you can hide with crypto

      A number of remailers, similar to anonymizing HTTP proxies, already exist to deal with that problem. Not exactly perfect, but it at least means the government will (probably) only bother working backward through the chain of redirections to catch someone they really want.

      Obviously, though, you have the right idea - If "they" want you, kiss yer anal virginity goodbye. But that doesn't mean we need to make what amounts to government-sanctioned voyeurism any easier.

  4. The law, anyone? by SunPin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What happens if they don't comply? This is a serious case of "resistance is futile." Time Warner and the FBI are just playing their proper roles. Congress is the group that needs a clue.

    --
    Laws are for people with no friends.
    1. Re:The law, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would think that is his point. The FBI is only enforcing laws created by the Legislative branch. It is not their job to create laws or overturn laws (which is the judicial branch's responsibility). You can't whine about the laws to the FBI. Write your senator instead.

  5. What about satellite ISP? by YetAnotherAnonymousC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So the article mentions new laws for cable and DSL. I wonder if they have covered their bases with wiretap laws for satellite ISPs?
    I know little about how staellite internet access is set up beyond the cost and latency specs. Anyone know if there's less/more/similar difficulty involved something like direcway traffic? I would imagine they can still stick something like our friend "carnivore" at the direcway base station?

  6. Get Bush Out! by nysus · · Score: 0, Insightful

    This news is good incentive to get out and vote in November.

    --

    ---Technology will liberate us if it doesn't enslave us first.

    1. Re:Get Bush Out! by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You seriously think any democratic candidate is going to CHANGE this? They're getting even bigger kickbacks from the media companies than the current administration.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
  7. Alright, I understand the privacy issue... by ERJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But is this really Time Warners fault? They are making provisions to comply with a law. Yes, it does not yet apply to them, but there is a good chance that it will and they are preparing for that. Shouldn't the real issue here be with the law, not the company?

  8. Amazing. by musingmelpomene · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Megacorporations, for once, have amazing power to do a huge amount of good for freedom in this country - by refusing to comply. They wield enough political power to shut this ridiculous new measure down. Their "pull" could be used to make sure this law never took effect.

    But instead, they're kowtowing to the government, ensuring that we lose another of the few shreds of privacy we had left.

    Organized resistance by individuals is great - but organized resistance by corporations (who should realize that, with all the corporate scandals, may be hurting themselves by giving more wiretap power to the government) would be fantastic and pretty much unstoppable.

    Let's see a show of corporate brute force! Who's with me?

    1. Re:Amazing. by cybermace5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Be careful what you wish for.

      --
      ...
    2. Re:Amazing. by RLiegh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      However, megacorporations -by nature of their international status- do not feel any moral obligation.

      Also, given the hefty $ handouts to the corporations from the government, it's not likely that any of them are giong to stand up for the little guy, either.

      What's good for the government, is good for the coporations, what's good for the corporations, is good for the government. We do not figure into it. At all.

    3. Re:Amazing. by Ytsejam-03 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Great idea, but how exactly to you plan to motivate these corporations to use their "pull" with the government? Corporations are in business to make money, and unless money is involved then they won't do a thing. Why take a business risk by refusing to comply with the law if you have nothing to gain from it?

      Sure, all of us in the Slashdot crowd can "vote with our wallets," and switch from Time/Warner to some other ISP that respects our privacy. But chances are that Joe Sixpack is not going to know or care what Time Warner is doing, and there are a lot more Joe Sixpacks out there than Slashdotters.

    4. Re:Amazing. by nomadic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Megacorporations, for once, have amazing power to do a huge amount of good for freedom in this country - by refusing to comply.

      Oh god no. The day corporations stop complying with the laws you don't like is the day they'll stop complying with the laws you do like.

      Environmental regulations? Out the window. OSHA laws? Gone. Child labor? Hiya kids, grab a pick and head to the mines. We can go back to the early part of the century when companies could spy on their workers' private lives in order to ensure they were living "morally".

    5. Re:Amazing. by Doctor+Faustus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We can go back to the early part of the century when companies could spy on their workers' private lives in order to ensure they were living "morally".

      "We strive to be a drug-free workplace."

  9. encrypted by millahtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, how do you tap something with 128bit or better encryption???? What happens when it gets to 512bit encryption???? Can the FBI really decrypt that to tap it???

    1. Re:encrypted by Sloppy · · Score: 2, Insightful
      That's a totally different type of threat. It's not something they can passively use on everybody. Adding a keystroke logger requires that they commit to breaking and entering, and all the legal checks and risks of detection that entails.

      Of course, when they can fly some invisible nano-bug spy into your house, I'm going to have to change my opinion on the matter... Bloody hell, is that going to complicate things. (Remember, if government gets technology like that, then crooks, voyeurs, etc will have it too.)

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  10. Re:Canadian laws by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Canada that's working on abolishing anonymity on the net? That Canada?

  11. Encryption by lofoforabr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That kind of thing won't work. At least not for the more sophisticated criminal networks, who will surely use encryption to do away with wiretapping.
    It's like banning guns in the hope that criminals won't get them either. They will still do what they are used to do, but by other means.

  12. Tired of it. by robslimo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good Dog. I'm tired of this erosion of my rights. Yeah, 9-11 was a Bad Thing (tm) and something had to be done, but the situation is getting out of hand. It ain't just GWB, either. The lawmakers as a whole are either reacting to or catering to the fear factor.

    Wiretapping has worked pretty well in the past... but with the proper legal steps taken first (court orders, whatever). Even this has been abused, but I can't see how wholesale wiretapping can be a good thing, ever.

  13. Questions... by vchoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quote: "Legal experts said the 85-page filing includes language that could be interpreted as forcing companies to build back doors into everything..."

    How would they enforce this with regards to encryption technologies?
    My point is if people have something to hide, then they will use whatever mechanism there is out there to hide it. Can authorities really achieve their goals by simply imposing wiretapping laws on broadband providers?

  14. Re:said it before, and i'll say it again.... by millahtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, it's ok to tap the phone but if the communication goes over the internet it's not ok to tap???? Why is one ok but not the other???

    To tap either one they would still need a court order. The same approval process. It's not like they can just go monitor anyone they want whenever they want.

  15. Kerry supports privacy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    LOL!

    You're seriously delluded.

  16. would be required to by Phrack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Given some previous announcements of Time Warner to get into the phone biz (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/36287 for one example), they would already be required to comply with wiretap laws. Nothing surprising here.

    Don't blame the provider for the law. Blame your lawmaker.

    --
    Dump the IRS - http://www.fairtax.org
  17. Cameras in their homes... by ferralis · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Hell, we've already got 'em (webcams)... and in our phones. And we're doing it to ourselves! Microsoft even wants to sell us a cool toy to make it easier.

    Some people are even using 'em to record themselves performing illegal acts. I'm against further invasion of privacy, but if we continue in this declared war without a visible end we'll see more and more of this. At no time in the US does the Executive Branch of government have more time than when the country is at war- hence the "war on drugs" and "war on terror" which cause people to let their common sense blow away on the winds of excessive brain-dead so-called patriotism.

    Blech. Ok- now for the backlash!

    Turn on those webcams! Stream video of everyone's life into the public domain! Record EVERYTHING YOU SEE and do! The information glut we could generate would overwhelm any monitoring system that could come out, I'm thinking. :) With the increased visibility of conduct and day-by-day infractions, maybe we could effect some reforms. Kind of hard to complain about the splinter in someones eye when you can see the timber in your own on HDTV.

    An interesting novel, "Light of Other Days" by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter, explores the ramifications of such a system- most painful, but generally positive.

    Makes ya think, which is almost never a bad thing. :)

    --
    Any generalization is a stupid one.
  18. use encryption... by iwadasn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    OK, I'm officially the crackpot at work, because I tell them to USE ENCRYPTION! Encryption costs basically nothing, there's no reason why anyone would host a website that didn't use, or at least offer SSL. Everyone out there should use encryption for everything. Get rid of telnet, use ssh, and sftp rather than ftp. Use SSL on your websites, etc.... Encryption literally costs nothing, there is no advantage to not using it, WHY DON'T YOU USE IT? If you're too stupid to protect yourself when doing costs you nothing, then maybe you never really needed rights to begin with.

    I just don't understand. It's so incredibly easy to protect your rights in this area, do you want someone else to do it for you. Clicking a button renders all their BS moot. With the effort you spend complaining you could solve the problem, it's just a button click away.

    If you want untappable phones, use VPN to run your VOIP from another jurisdiction, simple as that.

  19. How About Protection From Danger by nickasbob · · Score: 0, Insightful

    You know, I often hear people holler "invasion of privacy" everytime the government suggests that they may monitor communications. Does anyone stop to think that while they are monitoring your phone sex calls, they're also monitoring Abdul "bomber-of-buildings" Akmed? Some monitoring is necessary if we're ever going to be able to sleep soundly at night.

  20. Re:said it before, and i'll say it again.... by DAldredge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well , the can. All they have to do is 'pinky swear' that it is part of a National Security Matter. Just like they said the USA PATRIOT act would be used only against terrorists. Well, till they used it against that strip club owener is Vegas who has NO TERRORIST TIES>

    In short, they lie.

  21. Privacy? Over PUBLIC wires? by blcamp · · Score: 5, Insightful


    C'mon people.

    The internet is a PUBLIC network of public content. Where the hell does anyone get the idea that there is a concept of privacy involved here?

    (This is not intended to be sarcastic, rhetorical, nor trolling.)

    If you have (or seek) private information, encrypt it (or have it encrypted), (have it) wrap(ped) it in a .zip or other file, and encrypt the thing again.

    If you don't want the Government to watch what you are saying and/or doing, then don't give them anything to watch.

    This isn't a Bush or Ashcroft thing... this is a technology thing. Any time technology is seen as capable of doing something, ANYTHING, you can bet someone will try do do so... without regard to whom is in charge.

    --
    The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
    1. Re:Privacy? Over PUBLIC wires? by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The internet is a PUBLIC network of public content. Where the hell does anyone get the idea that there is a concept of privacy involved here?

      Yes and if you go out on the PUBLIC street and down to the PUBLIC store and make some purchases and maybe a cash withdrawal at a PUBLIC ATM, and meet some friends in a PUBLIC cafe, you wouldn't have any problems with a government agent following you 2 steps behind all around would you?

      If you don't want the Government to watch what you are saying and/or doing, then don't give them anything to watch.

      And in order to prove there's not anything to watch, you need to have them watching you 24/7. Otherwise, what are you hiding?

      Kjella

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re:Privacy? Over PUBLIC wires? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Telephone lines are public as well. Can a telephone operator listen in on your conversations? No, because the privacy of telephone conversations is protected by law. Why should the internet be any different?

  22. Re:said it before, and i'll say it again.... by Tackhead · · Score: 3, Insightful
    > the US is becoming the feared bohemoth, in George Orwell's 1984. Soon, everyone will have a camera in their homes, and there will be no escaping Big Brother.

    If you really believed that, would you post such a thing to a public message board whose contents are archived by anyone (and everyone)?

  23. Re:Come To My Country! by danlyke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So in your country, are the criminals and the law enforcement often one and the same?

    Yep. Thought so.

  24. Government == terrorists ? by northwind · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "access to communications infrastructure they need to protect our nation."

    This phrase has been used before. Interesting - I thought the terrorist threat came from outside - not inside?

    Could it be because of the old lame Shogun effect? The common enemy. Protect yourself by paying me to find problems that should worry you.

    Are we still free? Are we still allowed to think that we are free?

    Beware of the killer tomatoes.....

  25. Re:Globalization + due process by Atzanteol · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You're not supposed to *read* the patriot act! You're supposed to listen to the hearsay and conjecture on slashdot!

    Sheesh. Newbies...

    I don't know what everyone is whining about here. If the FBI can convince a court that they should be reading your email, listening to your conversations, etc., then I probably *want them to do so*. Has anybody thought what would happen if the FBI had too *little* power? The results could be just as bad as if they have too much power IMHO.

    --
    "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

    - Charles Darwin
  26. Re:Canadian laws by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "Great! I'll join you. Want to start up an IT business up there? ;)"

    Interesting thought, however, make sure you have a plan to somehow get all your drives, and CDR's bought in the US and smuggled up there somehow to avoid all the 'piracy' tarrifs they have there...

    :-)

    Actually that would be interesting...could you get around the tarriff laws, by having a US based office...and you just 'moved office supplies' between offices in US and Canada?

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  27. Re:why are you fearful? by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What's wrong with mandatory body cavity searches? Unless you are participating in some criminal activity violating federal rules of contraband and controlled substances, how does this affect you?

    Well, it's called 'innocent until proven guilty,' 'due process,' and 'unreasonable search and seizure.'

    Not that America cares all that much about the Constitution; just wait until that bill passes which allows Congress to supercede the SCOTUS...

    Checks and balances; here's the check, now my balance is bigger. Here's your new law, sir, would you like freedom fries with that?

    --
    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  28. Re:Canadian laws by Bull999999 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And people in Europe thought that they were safe from US-like patent laws but look at what's happening in EU now. Many US laws have tendency to migrate to other countries so if you want privacy, take a stand and fight for your rights insteading of just fleeing.

    --
    1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
  29. I wouldn't be surprised by abolith · · Score: 2, Insightful
    if the FBI stated that they would like powers rivaling those held by the SS and the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo). hell a few more patriot acts and they just might....

    --
    if you want "No More Hiroshimas" then I say "You First. No More Pearl Harbors."
  30. Re:Globalization + due process by Sloppy · · Score: 2, Insightful
    the only real answer is for people to rise up and demand better legal protections
    That doesn't work. The government isn't your only threat. The other threats are going to ignore the law. Maybe if you pass a law that LEOs need a warrant to snoop, they'll obey. But organized crime won't obey. The pervert who works at your mistress' ISP who is going to show your love letters to your wife unless you pay him $500, won't obey. B1FF the 31337 H4XX0R won't obey.

    Legal protections aren't enough. You have to technologically secure your communications.

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
  31. Problem is no court is now required by nurb432 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That is the crux of the issue. Yes it should be Ok to tap, if you get a signed court order from a judge. ( ie, having to make a case for the tap )

    The problem is with these new 'taps' is that all the FBI/CIA/etc have to do is claim it has something to do with national security ( they dont even have to explain why ) and they get full access to your private transactions, papers, home, etc.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----