Comcast Charges $1000 Per Wiretap

It seems trashing the Fourth Amendment is very profitable: For one company, FISA wiretaps carry a $1K pricetag

Comcast, which is among the nation's largest telecommunication companies, charges $1,000 to install a FISA wiretap and $750 for each additional month authorities want to keep an eye on suspects, according to the company's Handbook for Law Enforcement. Secrecy News obtained the document and published it Monday.

Comments

illegal?

[kharchenko]

It talks about FISA-court approved wiretaps ... how come the title says illegal?

Re:illegal?

[morgan_greywolf]

You're right. At least with FISA, there is some judicial oversight. Of course, this is judicial oversight by a secret court with closed proceedings in direct violation of the Constitution (right to be protected against unreasonable/unwarranted searches and seizures, right to a fair trial by jury of your peers) but at least it's technically legal under the Foreign Intelligence and Security Act.

Re:illegal?

[nuzak]

The FISA court is largely a rubber-stamp thing, but they do serve one vital purpose: they leave a paper trail. And Congress, not the executive branch, oversees the FISA court.

They're certainly not a shining example of democratic ideals, but they are a damn sight better than the powers arrogated by this administration.

Oh wait, I forgot: we're at war. Forever.

I'm more impressed with Qwest in this case

[Dekortage]

...because they resisted the NSA.

Pinto?

[Gothmolly]

So this is like when Ford decided that if each Pinto that exploded cost them less than 11 million USD in lawsuits, it was still worth producing the cars?

Scary accounting

[Loosifur]

Best line from the article:

"I was actually surprised that this was such a routine transaction that it would have a set fee," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

Two things that I find strange. First, take this out of the context of FISA. If a state prosecutor, say, subpoenas records from a private business, do they routinely pay said business for the processing? Generally speaking, it seems that when a court orders something, you don't get paid for the time or effort. Even if you hire a lawyer to handle the subpoena process you don't get reimbursed for that. Maybe someone with some inside knowledge can fill me in here, but wouldn't you have to file a petition to have any processing costs refunded?

Second thing that's a little quirky, why is there a maintenance fee? Why is there an initial cost? I wouldn't think that it's Comcast's own techs doing the surveillance. After all, when phone lines are tapped Verizon guys don't do the tapping. Is it to compensate for lost bandwidth? Doesn't seem likely. Again, if someone knows better, please fill me in, but it seems a bit strange that Comcast is able to charge money to allow the government to perform court-ordered surveillance.

Re:Scary accounting

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. What happens if the government refused to pay? Would comcast just say, we don't have to do what the court says, screw you?
If there is a court order, I though that you had no choice but to comply or be held in contempt of court (or something like that).

Maybe they meant to post THIS

[alteran]

75 year old takes a hammer to Comcast.

Re:Let's Look at the Fourth Amendment!

[HouseArrest420]

[quote] Three or four unaccountable people say so is no "reasonable" grounds for a search in a real democracy. [/quote] Do you really know enough about US law to make a claim about US law? Let's put this in another context. 4 of your neighbors call the police and say they believe your running drugs out of your house due to the mass amounts of traffic to and from your house thru the day. That right there is enough for a search warrent (and those statements didn't even come from law enforcement officials), it will lead to a RAID (sp?) if the police already suspected this. This happened 2 times (first was the warrent, second was the raid) to the house across the street from my home, which is how I know this can, and does, happen.

Re:Let's Look at the Fourth Amendment!

[HouseArrest420]

No, it isn't) . Tell that to the countless pedophiles that get put away each year due to tipsters leading to search warrents.

Trust me. The police aren't going to be able to get a warrant based on unsworn statements given by a handful of nosy neighbors unless they already have some corroborating evidence. This statement in a thread about illegal wiretapping. lol. Ironic, since all it takes is 1 judge to produce a warrent. If the cop asking for the warrent is "friends" with the judge its a lot easier and takes a lot less, and happens a lot more than you think.

Do you have any friends that are cops? Ever been pulled over by him while you were drunk and speeding? I don't have any friends that are cops, but I did get pulled over for Drunk Driving going 55 in a school zone. You know what it took me to get out of that ticket? My hair cut and a USMC ID. I think it would have taken less had the cop been my personal friend. So I'll trust when you can prove what happens all the time, doesn't.