‘Phone tap’ amicus brief
p2p news / p2pnet: “Just as in the cell tracking cases, the government has tried to hide its baseless arguments from public scrutiny,” says EFF lawyer Kevin Bankston.
His comment came after the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) and CDT (Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) filed an amicus brief arguing the US government needs a warrant to collect the content of a telephone call, even if the content originates with digits dialed on a phone keypad.
The brief was filed, “in response to requests from government investigators to use a pen register or trap and trace device to collect all information entered using the buttons on a telephone (including, for example, bank account numbers or prescription refill requests),” says the EFF.
A “pen/trap” order must meet a lower standard of judicial review than a typical phone-tapping warrant, because only telephone numbers dialed from a certain phone – not the content of the phone call itself – are normally collected, it explains, adding:
“In their brief, EFF and CDT ask the judge to continue denying the orders and argue that the government’s request cannot be granted without violating federal wiretap law and the Fourth Amendment.”
Also See:
EFF – EFF Backs Court in Protecting Phone Call Privacy, July 3, 2006
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