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Wiretap Requests From Federal and State Authorities Fell 14% In 2011

Posted by samzenpus on from the are-you-listening-to-my-conversation? dept.

coondoggie writes "Federal and state court orders approving the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications dropped 14% in 2011, compared to the number reported in 2010. According to a report issued by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of 2,732 wiretap applications were authorized in 2011 by federal and state courts, with 792 applications by federal authorities and 1,940 applications by 25 states that provide reports. The reduction in wiretaps resulted primarily from a drop in applications for intercepts in narcotics offenses, the report noted."

3 of 64 comments (clear)

  1. Except you can't do that by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Informative

    The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 clearly specifies that an properly adjudicated, individualized warrant from a court is required to collect, process, analyze, store, or disseminate the content of the communications of a US Person. While it seems to be common belief that you can just "call someone a terrorist and tap their phones," this is in fact false.

    If you think the government will just ignore the law and do whatever it wants anyway, then any discussion of the law is moot.

  2. Re:[Citation needed] by poetmatt · · Score: 5, Informative

    really? How much proof do you need?

    http://epic.org/privacy/nsl/#stats

    NSL's are almost never even constitutional, so "not legal" wiretaps. Yet they're on an order of magnitude higher. 2700 wiretaps vs 8500 before the patriot act and 140k after the patriot act?

    They shifted from legal methods (harder to obtain) to sanctioned but clearly illegal methods (simple to obtain, no judicial oversight, no perjury or accountability).

  3. Re:[Citation needed] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    NSL's are requests for information, not wiretaps.