Docs show FBI tracks cell, phone, email, and IM extrajudicially

Washington Post reports today on documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that depict a FBI communications dragnet consisting of open circuits from telecom companies:

The circuits — little-known electronic connections between telecom firms and FBI monitoring personnel around the country — are used to tell the government who is calling whom, along with the time and duration of a conversation and even the locations of those involved.

Since a 1994 law required telecoms to build electronic interception capabilities into their systems, the FBI has created a network of links between the nation’s largest telephone and Internet firms and about 40 FBI offices and Quantico, according to interviews and documents describing the agency’s Digital Collection System. The documents were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group in San Francisco that specializes in digital-rights issues.

To be clear, court orders are required to analyze content of calls. But, tracking of communications are allowed extrajudicially if the FBI believes they are ‘relevant’:

Wiretaps to obtain the content of a phone call or an e-mail must be authorized by a court upon a showing of probable cause. But “transactional data” about a communication — from whom, to whom, how long it lasted — can be obtained by simply showing that it is relevant to an official probe, including through an administrative subpoena known as a national security letter (NSL). According to the Justice Department’s inspector general, the number of NSLs issued by the FBI soared from 8,500 in 2000 to 47,000 in 2005.

The articles includes a quote from Lauren Weinstein of the People for Internet Responsibility who makes a succinct case for why this is wrong:

“When you’re building something like this deeply into the telecommunications infrastructure, when it becomes so technically easy to do, the only thing that stands between legitimate use and abuse is the complete honesty of the persons and agencies using it and the ability to have independent oversight over the system’s use.”

If you you support the FBI and NSA’s ability to access and track your communications, you presumably trust the government. Trust them not to do too much with their powers, to keep domestic spying limited to ‘terrorist’ or ‘criminal’ activities.

As a matter of principle, I do not trust the government. (Recent) History has proven government to not be worthy of much trust — certainly not enough to be trusted with domestic spying. Besides, even the FBI has reported that thousands of NSLs were issued on ‘flawed procedures.’

You may also prefer to separate yourself from the problem with a sentiment along the lines of ‘they aren’t tracking my communications — only those of terrorists.’ But by that logic there are 47,000 terrorists in the US judging by the NSLs issued in 2005 alone. Doubtful.

See also:

+ Whistle blower describes FBI backdoor to telecom’s data