Details On 2001 Wiretaps

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."

Encryption not in Patriot Act

[Bouncings]

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.

More details available at Politech...

[Arthur Dent]

This report [wired.com] 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.

Re:More details available at Politech...

[caca_phony]

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?

Re:More details available at Politech...

[isorox]

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?

Re:More details available at Politech...

[Arthur Dent]

Sure they have.

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