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Caveats: I am not a lawyer. Also, this article is not a survey of the history of surveillance laws in the United States.
I simply want to draw attention to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (CALEA). If you have been following privacy issues for a long time, then I am sure you are already quite familiar with it. Personally, in 1994 all I cared about was playing video games and going to see the latest piece of Hollywood garbage playing at the movie theater.
The significance of CALEA is not that it gave the government the power to spy on your wire and electronic communications. Actually, what it did was to legally require all telecommunication providers to make it possible (and convenient) to do so. To be a "telecommunications carrier" in the United States, defined as "a person or entity engaged in the transmission or switching of wire or electronic communications as a common carrier for hire", requires that said carrier provide equipment with built-in surveillance capabilities making it possible for law enforcement to monitor communications and to do so without being detected.
Aside, of course, from the people who want privacy from government wiretapping and communications monitoring, the real victims here are the individuals and companies that provide telecommunication services. Whatever their personal beliefs happen to be about government intrusion into privacy, whatever their consciences happen to be telling them, they nevertheless are required by law to not only allow the government to monitor their customers' communications, but also to participate with them by setting up all the necessary equipment and configuration ahead of time.
The legal code itself is available from uscode.house.gov, and the CALEA home page is located at www.askcalea.net. I will not reproduce all the text here, but only some significant portions. My headers are simply for organizational purposes and are not part of the text.
-CITE- 47 USC Sec. 1001 1/07/2011 (111-383) -EXPCITE- TITLE 47 - TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS CHAPTER 9 - INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS SUBCHAPTER I - INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS -HEAD- Sec. 1001. Definitions -STATUTE- For purposes of this subchapter - (1) The terms defined in section 2510 of title 18 have, respectively, the meanings stated in that section. (2) The term "call-identifying information" means dialing or signaling information that identifies the origin, direction, destination, or termination of each communication generated or received by a subscriber by means of any equipment, facility, or service of a telecommunications carrier. (3) The term "Commission" means the Federal Communications Commission. (4) The term "electronic messaging services" means software- based services that enable the sharing of data, images, sound, writing, or other information among computing devices controlled by the senders or recipients of the messages. (5) The term "government" means the government of the United States and any agency or instrumentality thereof, the District of Columbia, any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States, and any State or political subdivision thereof authorized by law to conduct electronic surveillance. (6) The term "information services" - (A) means the offering of a capability for generating, acquiring, storing, transforming, processing, retrieving, utilizing, or making available information via telecommunications; and (B) includes - (i) a service that permits a customer to retrieve stored information from, or file information for storage in, information storage facilities; (ii) electronic publishing; and (iii) electronic messaging services; but (C) does not include any capability for a telecommunications carrier's internal management, control, or operation of its telecommunications network. (7) The term "telecommunications support services" means a product, software, or service used by a telecommunications carrier for the internal signaling or switching functions of its telecommunications network. (8) The term "telecommunications carrier" - (A) means a person or entity engaged in the transmission or switching of wire or electronic communications as a common carrier for hire; and (B) includes - (i) a person or entity engaged in providing commercial mobile service (as defined in section 332(d) of this title); or (ii) a person or entity engaged in providing wire or electronic communication switching or transmission service to the extent that the Commission finds that such service is a replacement for a substantial portion of the local telephone exchange service and that it is in the public interest to deem such a person or entity to be a telecommunications carrier for purposes of this subchapter; but (C) does not include - (i) persons or entities insofar as they are engaged in providing information services; and (ii) any class or category of telecommunications carriers that the Commission exempts by rule after consultation with the Attorney General.
-CITE- 47 USC Sec. 1002 1/07/2011 (111-383) -EXPCITE- TITLE 47 - TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS CHAPTER 9 - INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS SUBCHAPTER I - INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS -HEAD- Sec. 1002. Assistance capability requirements -STATUTE- (a) Capability requirements Except as provided in subsections (b), (c), and (d) of this section and sections 1007(a) and 1008(b) and (d) of this title, a telecommunications carrier shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services that provide a customer or subscriber with the ability to originate, terminate, or direct communications are capable of - (1) expeditiously isolating and enabling the government, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, to intercept, to the exclusion of any other communications, all wire and electronic communications carried by the carrier within a service area to or from equipment, facilities, or services of a subscriber of such carrier concurrently with their transmission to or from the subscriber's equipment, facility, or service, or at such later time as may be acceptable to the government; (2) expeditiously isolating and enabling the government, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, to access call-identifying information that is reasonably available to the carrier - (A) before, during, or immediately after the transmission of a wire or electronic communication (or at such later time as may be acceptable to the government); and (B) in a manner that allows it to be associated with the communication to which it pertains, except that, with regard to information acquired solely pursuant to the authority for pen registers and trap and trace devices (as defined in section 3127 of title 18), such call-identifying information shall not include any information that may disclose the physical location of the subscriber (except to the extent that the location may be determined from the telephone number); (3) delivering intercepted communications and call-identifying information to the government, pursuant to a court order or other lawful authorization, in a format such that they may be transmitted by means of equipment, facilities, or services procured by the government to a location other than the premises of the carrier; and (4) facilitating authorized communications interceptions and access to call-identifying information unobtrusively and with a minimum of interference with any subscriber's telecommunications service and in a manner that protects - (A) the privacy and security of communications and call- identifying information not authorized to be intercepted; and (B) information regarding the government's interception of communications and access to call-identifying information. (b) Limitations (1) Design of features and systems configurations This subchapter does not authorize any law enforcement agency or officer - (A) to require any specific design of equipment, facilities, services, features, or system configurations to be adopted by any provider of a wire or electronic communication service, any manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, or any provider of telecommunications support services; or (B) to prohibit the adoption of any equipment, facility, service, or feature by any provider of a wire or electronic communication service, any manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, or any provider of telecommunications support services. (2) Information services; private networks and interconnection services and facilities The requirements of subsection (a) of this section do not apply to - (A) information services; or (B) equipment, facilities, or services that support the transport or switching of communications for private networks or for the sole purpose of interconnecting telecommunications carriers. (3) Encryption A telecommunications carrier shall not be responsible for decrypting, or ensuring the government's ability to decrypt, any communication encrypted by a subscriber or customer, unless the encryption was provided by the carrier and the carrier possesses the information necessary to decrypt the communication. (c) Emergency or exigent circumstances In emergency or exigent circumstances (including those described in sections 2518(7) or (11)(b) and 3125 of title 18 and section 1805(e) of title 50), a carrier at its discretion may comply with subsection (a)(3) of this section by allowing monitoring at its premises if that is the only means of accomplishing the interception or access. (d) Mobile service assistance requirements A telecommunications carrier that is a provider of commercial mobile service (as defined in section 332(d) of this title) offering a feature or service that allows subscribers to redirect, hand off, or assign their wire or electronic communications to another service area or another service provider or to utilize facilities in another service area or of another service provider shall ensure that, when the carrier that had been providing assistance for the interception of wire or electronic communications or access to call-identifying information pursuant to a court order or lawful authorization no longer has access to the content of such communications or call-identifying information within the service area in which interception has been occurring as a result of the subscriber's use of such a feature or service, information is made available to the government (before, during, or immediately after the transfer of such communications) identifying the provider of a wire or electronic communication service that has acquired access to the communications.
-CITE- 47 USC Sec. 1004 1/07/2011 (111-383) -EXPCITE- TITLE 47 - TELEGRAPHS, TELEPHONES, AND RADIOTELEGRAPHS CHAPTER 9 - INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS SUBCHAPTER I - INTERCEPTION OF DIGITAL AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS -HEAD- Sec. 1004. Systems security and integrity -STATUTE- A telecommunications carrier shall ensure that any interception of communications or access to call-identifying information effected within its switching premises can be activated only in accordance with a court order or other lawful authorization and with the affirmative intervention of an individual officer or employee of the carrier acting in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commission.
The rest of the sections are mostly practical details, such as giving the Commission authority the power to set "technical requirements or standards" and appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for the infrastructure.
While originally the application of CALEA was only concerned with monitoring phone conversations, eventually the scope of the law was expanded to include VoIP and broadband Internet traffic. {cnet.com}
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