Encyclopedia > Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is a controversial United States wiretapping law passed in 1994 (Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279). In its own words, the purpose of CALEA is: Telephone tapping or Wire tapping/ Wiretapping (in US) describes the monitoring of telephone conversations by a third party, often by covert means. ...
- To amend title 18, United States Code, to make clear a telecommunications carrier's duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes.
The driving force in adopting CALEA was the FBI's worry that increasing use of digital telephone exchange switches would make tapping phones at the phone company's central office harder and slower to execute, or in some cases impossible. Since the original requirement to add CALEA-compliant interfaces required phone companies to modify or replace hardware and software in their systems, U.S. Congress included funding for a limited time period to cover such network upgrades. CALEA was passed on October 25, 1994 and came into force on January 1, 1995. The United States Code (U.S.C.) is a compilation and codification of the general and permanent federal law of the United States. ...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...
In the field of telecommunications, a central office or telephone exchange houses equipment that is commonly known as simply a switch, which is a piece of equipment that connects phone calls. ...
The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States of America. ...
Provisions of CALEA
The U.S. Congress passed the CALEA to aid law enforcement in its effort to conduct surveillance of citizens via digital telephone networks. The Act obliges telephone companies to make it possible for law enforcement agencies to tap any phone conversations carried out over its networks, as well as making call detail records available. The act also stipulates that it must not be possible for a person to detect that his or her conversation is being monitored by the respective government agency. Finally, the Calea Implementation Unit at the FBI has clarified that: while buffering may be necessary to ensure successful transport, this buffering is envisioned as only lasting long enough to determine that the transmission was successful. Intercepted information is supposed to be sent to Law Enforcement concurrently with its capture, but the storing of the intercept on a CALEA device or hardware may not be legal. Telephone tapping or Wire tapping/ Wiretapping (in US) describes the monitoring of telephone conversations by a third party, often by covert means. ...
A Call Detail Record (CDR) (also Call Detail Recording) or Station Message Detail Recording (SMDR) in the telecom sector is a file containing information about recent system usage such as the identities of sources (points of origin), the identities of destinations (endpoints), the duration of each call, the amount billed...
On March 10, 2004, the DOJ, FBI and DEA filed a "Joint Petition for Expedited Rulemaking" in which they requested certain steps to accelerate CALEA compliance. This petition mainly involved extending the provisions of CALEA to cover citizens' communications that travel over the internet. This resulted in the FCC issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking entitled "In the Matter of Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act and Broadband Access and Services" (FCC 04-187, 2004 WL 1774542) on August 9, 2004. The FCC received public comment and, in August 2005, adopted a "First Report and Order" concluding that CALEA applies to facilities-based broadband Internet access providers and providers of interconnected (with the PSTN network) Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services. The First Report and Order also sought public comment on whether other (non-interconnected) types of VoIP services should be covered by CALEA and on how the Commission should consider granting exemptions from CALEA's requirements. In May 2006, the FCC adopted a "Second Report and Order", which clarified and affirmed the First Order: DOJ headquarters in Washington, D.C. Justice Department redirects here. ...
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a federal criminal investigative, intelligence agency, and the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ...
The DEAs enforcement activities may take agents anywhere from distant countries to suburban U.S. homes. ...
The FCCs official seal. ...
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the concatenation of the worlds public circuit-switched telephone networks, in much the same way that the Internet is the concatenation of the worlds public IP-based packet-switched networks. ...
IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ...
- The CALEA compliance deadline remains May 14, 2007, and applies equally to all facilities-based broadband access providers and interconnected VoIP service providers, with restricted availability of compliance extensions.
- Carriers are permitted to meet their CALEA obligations through the services of “Trusted Third Parties (TTP)” including processing requests for intercepts, conducting electronic surveillance, and delivering information to LEAs. However, carriers remain responsible for ensuring the timely delivery of information to the LEA and protecting subscriber privacy, as required by CALEA.
- Carriers are responsible for CALEA development and implementation costs, and may not recover these costs through a national surcharge.
- Service providers to whom CALEA obligations were applied in the First Order must comply with the system security requirements of the First Order by within 90 days of the effective date of the Second Order.
Section 107 of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) states: “a telecommunications carrier shall be found to be in compliance with the assistance capability requirements under Section 103, and a manufacturer of telecommunication transmission or switching equipment or a provider of telecommunication support services shall be found in compliance with Section 106, if the carrier, manufacturer, or support service provider is in compliance with publicly available technical requirements or standards adopted by an industry association or standard-setting organization, or by the Commission under subsection (b), to meet the requirements of section 103.”
The Internet Engineering Task Force in 2000 decided not to consider requirements for wiretapping as part of the process for creating and maintaining IETF standards (RFC 2804). The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) presented a June 2006 paper authored by Vinton Cerf, Whitfield Diffie, among others which discusses the implications of applying CALEA to VoIP. In their opinion: In order to extend authorized interception much beyond the easy scenario, it is necessary either to eliminate the flexibility that Internet communications allow, or else introduce serious security risks to domestic VoIP implementations. The former would have significant negative effects on U.S. ability to innovate, while the latter is simply dangerous. The current FBI and FCC direction on CALEA applied to VoIP carries great risks. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies; and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. ...
The Information Technology Association of America is an industry trade group for several information technology companies. ...
Vinton G. Cerf (born June 23, 1943) is commonly referred to as the father of the Internet. During his tenure from 1976 to 1982 with the United States Department of Defenses Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Cerf played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related...
Whitfield Diffie Bailey Whitfield Whit Diffie (born June 5, 1944) is a US cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography. ...
IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ...
The FCC’s First Report and Order ruled that providers of broadband Internet access and interconnected VoIP services are regulable as “telecommunications carriers” under CALEA. On May 5, 2006, a group of higher education and library organizations led by the American Council on Education (ACE) challenged that ruling, arguing that the FCC’s interpretation of CALEA was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment. However, on June 9, 2006, the D.C. Circuit Court disagreed and summarily denied the petition (American Council on Education vs. FCC, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Decision 05-1404, June 9, 2006). The American Council on Education is a United States organization comprising over 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations. ...
The Bill of Rights in the National Archives Amendment IV (the Fourth amendment) to the United States Constitution is one of the provisions included in the Bill of Rights. ...
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. ...
See also Note: AUMF may refer to several authorizations granted by the United States Congress. ...
Lawful interception (aka wiretapping) of telecommunications. ...
Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire population, or a substantial fraction thereof. ...
The secrecy of correspondence ( German: , Swedish: , Finnish: ), or literally translated as secrecy of letters, is a fundamental legal principle enshrined in the constitutions of several European countries. ...
Secure communication describes means by which people can share information with varying degrees of certainty that third parties cannot know what was said. ...
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