Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
companies claimed that implementing these capabilities would cost them billions of
dollars [40]. Nevertheless, in August 2005, the FCC gave Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) and certain other broadband providers 18 months to modify their systems as
necessary so that law enforcement agencies could wiretap calls made using their services
[41]. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups challenged the FCC decision
in court, blocking the implementation of the order. Since then, the Department of
Justice has pursued a legislative solution, asking Congress to revise CALEA and explicitly
authorize the wiretapping of online communications, but to date no legislation has been
passed [42].
On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners in
the United States and turned them into flying bombs. Two of the planes flew into New
York's World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in a field
in Pennsylvania. Soon after these attacks, which resulted in about 3,000 deaths and the
destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the United States Congress
passed the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required
to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act of 2001, henceforth referred
to as the Patriot Act [43]. The Patriot Act has raised many questions about the extent to
which government agencies should be able to collect information about individuals in
the United States without first obtaining a search warrant.
The Patriot Act amended many existing laws. Its provisions fall into four principal
categories:
1. Providing federal law enforcement and intelligence officials with greater authority
to monitor communications
2. Giving the Secretary of the Treasury greater powers to regulate banks, preventing
them from being used to launder foreign money
3. Making it more difficult for terrorists to enter the United States
4. Defining new crimes and penalties for terrorist activity
We focus on those provisions of the Patriot Act that most directly affect the privacy of
persons living inside the United States.
The Patriot Act expands the kinds of information that law enforcement officials
can gather with pen registers and trap-and-trace devices. It allows police to use pen
registers on the Internet to track email addresses and URLs. The law does not require
they demonstrate probable cause. To obtain a warrant, police simply certify that the
information to be gained is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation.
Law enforcement agencies seeking to install a wiretap or a pen register/trap-and-
tracedevicehavealwaysbeenrequiredtogetacourtorderfromajudgewithjuris-
