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Federal Wiretaps Down Slightly, Encryption Impact Decreases

Posted by samzenpus on from the who's-listening dept.

coondoggie writes: According to the 2014 Wiretap Report, released today by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a total of a total of 3,554 wiretaps were reported as authorized, with 1,279 authorized by federal judges and 2,275 authorized by state judges. Compared to the applications approved during 2013, the number approved by federal judges decreased 13% in 2014 and the number approved by state judges increased 8%. One state wiretap application was denied in 2014, the report stated.

24 comments

  1. What is this, a stock market? by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wiretaps down... But soybeans are up!

    I can see the campaign. *Elect me, and domestic wiretaps will decrease by 14.3% more than the other candidate!*

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:What is this, a stock market? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like they still thing that a slight reduction is a good thing. The fact is that wiretaps should be a rare thing, and only authorized in extreme cases. Somehow these when you can number these in the thousands then you most likely have an issue with the system that authorizes the wiretaps. Either that or we have a really horrible population, that is intent on death and destruction.

    2. Re:What is this, a stock market? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can see the campaign. *Elect me, and domestic wiretaps will decrease by 14.3% more than the other candidate!*

      The best part is that 14.3% of zero is zero!

    3. Re:What is this, a stock market? by Sarten-X · · Score: 1

      Somehow ... when you can number these in the thousands...

      Then you most likely have a population in the hundreds of millions, a very small proportion of which are actually under investigation. While I certainly agree that they should be a "rare" and "extreme" measure, I just don't find it unreasonable to believe that one person in a hundred thousand is under a wiretap-requiring investigation.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  2. Authorized Wire taps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh come on....

        * NSA tapes ALL domestic communications
        * Police and FBU use Stingrays

    Authorized wiretaps are down because they just don't need them anymore.

    1. Re:Authorized Wire taps by leftover · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Exactly. This does NOT say that wiretaps are down, only that "reported wiretaps" are down.

      Maybe some of the reports were from LEOs trying to do the right thing. I certainly hope so.

      --
      Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
    2. Re:Authorized Wire taps by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      i would like to buy a stingray. where can i get one?

    3. Re:Authorized Wire taps by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      Here

  3. Meanwhile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Warrantless, illegal mass surveillance continues unabated.

    1. Re:Meanwhile... by Paleolibertarian · · Score: 1

      They have a warrant. A secret FISA court warrant. Still unconstitutional though.

    2. Re:Meanwhile... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, don't forget the part about it being a general warrant that specifies neither the person nor the place to search, but also never expires.

      Oh and the part about where the 4th amendment specifies that those are illegal? Jokes! Only jokes. Come on, guy, the government would never knowingly break the law, right?

    3. Re:Meanwhile... by chasm22 · · Score: 1

      Hmmm, this story http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... would make it seem otherwise.

    4. Re: Meanwhile... by chromeronin799 · · Score: 1

      Not unconstitutional. The secret FISA court said so.

  4. I would have thought by overshoot · · Score: 1

    ... that wiretaps would be WAY down over the past several years since the NSA can get the same results without a warrant in most cases (the only time they need a warrant is if they're planning to play the recording in court.)

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
  5. AUTHORIZED wiretaps are down by penguinoid · · Score: 2

    I guess the editors decided that a sensationalistic headline is better than a provocative one.

    Meanwhile, I can only imagine that warentless wiretaps are way up given that there's more people and more phones and the NSA.

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:AUTHORIZED wiretaps are down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Authorized wiretaps are actually about break even, only the federal ones are down.

  6. What pointless numbers by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Hey everyone! Look at these small numbers over here! Ignore the fact that EVERY device has metadata logged so we can tell who you talked to, when... and possibly more but we'll not mention that.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  7. And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    350,000,000 unauthorised wiretaps

  8. So with all the whining from the FBI, etc... by chasm22 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It turns out that there were ONLY two freaking wiretaps that were encrypted and as a result of encryption the feds couldn't decipher.

    So for seemingly weeks we were told of the dangers that encryption posed to the authorities. They universally proclaimed encryption to be a direct threat to national security. I remember glancing at some of the stories and wondering just how big of a problem was this so-called threat. Well now we know. They want everyone to give up encryption because they couldn't decipher two messages. Wow. End of the world type stuff. Nothing like losing credibility. I know how I'll feel the next time the director of the FBI makes a plea for another reduction of our freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism.

    1. Re:So with all the whining from the FBI, etc... by CaptQuark · · Score: 2

      That is only 2 of the 3554 authorized wiretaps were encrypted. The amount of encrypted content in the unauthorized wiretaps continues to grow. They go to the trouble of setting up all this unauthorized monitoring equipment and we complicate their jobs by encrypting the content. THAT is what they are complaining about.

      ~~

    2. Re:So with all the whining from the FBI, etc... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It turns out that there were ONLY two freaking wiretaps that were encrypted and as a result of encryption the feds couldn't decipher.

      So for seemingly weeks we were told of the dangers that encryption posed to the authorities. They universally proclaimed encryption to be a direct threat to national security. I remember glancing at some of the stories and wondering just how big of a problem was this so-called threat. Well now we know. They want everyone to give up encryption because they couldn't decipher two messages. Wow. End of the world type stuff. Nothing like losing credibility. I know how I'll feel the next time the director of the FBI makes a plea for another reduction of our freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism.

      You are missing part of the Venn diagram.

      Those two encrypted wiretaps were likely ones where they didn't know, or notice, or it just started encryption. They might not even ask for a warrant on the ones that are encrypted and they are aware that it is encrypted. (Why bother if you can't get into it?)

      On the flip side, they have to push those into "parallel construction" territory and rely on the NSA to use their pre-built holes in the encryption to get the information.... and the data gets out other ways and bypasses the warrant in the first place.

      Thus, instances where encryption stops a requested wiretap should be low.

    3. Re:So with all the whining from the FBI, etc... by sjames · · Score: 1

      Yes, they just hate it when we keep them sorta-kinda semi honistish.

  9. Wiretapism by Max_W · · Score: 1

    Every state is based on the wiretapping. All humanity history is the history of wiretaps.

    Read book "The Code Book. The secret history of codes and code-breaking" by Simon Singh, ISBN 1-85702-889-9 (no affiliation).

    Practically any historical event has got a wiretapping background. This is what states do.