HOUSE PANEL VOTES TO MODERNIZE CURBS ON ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706710006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: May 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706710006-8
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4C A.1 a A? I WASHINGTON POST
""'fm""' `' 15 May 1986
House Panel Votes to Modernize
Curbs on Electronic Eavesdropping
Computerized Transactions, Cellular Phone Conversations Covered
By Mary Thornton
Washington Post Staff Writer
After more than two years of stu-
dy, a House subcommittee yester-
day unanimously approved a bill
that would make it illegal to eaves-
drop on electronic communications,
including cellular telephone conver-
sations, electronic fund transfers,
and computer messages and data
transmissions.
The bill would also extend to
such communications Fourth
Amendment protection against un-
reasonable search and seizure.
The "Electronic Communications
Privacy Act of 1986" was approved
by a unanimous voice vote of :the
House judiciary subcommittee on
civil liberties after it received the
strong backing of the Justice De-
partment, the American Civil Lib-
erties Union and the computer and
communications industries.
Jerry Berman of the ACLU called
the vote "a significant victory for
citizen privacy. It demonstrates
that new coalitions can be formed to
enhance privacy rights."
The legislation is designed to fill
the void created as technology
raced ahead of the laws prohibiting
improper wiretapping of telephone
calls or searches of mail.
A report by the congressional
Office of Technology Assessment
last October warned that "many
innovations in electronic surveil-
lance technology" available to law
enforcement agencies "have out-
stripped constitutional and statu-
tory protections, leaving areas in
which there is currently no legal
protection against ... new surveil-
lance devices."
The report included a survey of
federal agencies, including six that
said they planned to intercept or
monitor electronic mail as part of
their investigative work.
At stake in one area is the priva-
cy of about 250 million electronic
messages in the United States each
year. Industry sources estimate
that 5 million Americans use elec-
tronic mail, either through commer-
cial networks operated by compa-
nies like MCI and GTE Telenet or
through corporate networks linked
by computer terminals and tele-
phone lines.
The bill would require a court-ap-
proved search warrant for law en-
forcement agencies to obtain a com-
puter message within six months of
its generation and a subpoena after
that. Most companies eliminate
their messages from the system
after three months.
Another major concern is the
new cellular telephone technology.
Under the legislation, law enforce-
ment agencies would have to meet
the strict standards of the federal
wiretap statute to eavesdrop on
cellular telephone conversations,
transmitted by high-frequency radio
signal to base stations connecting
them to telephone systems in cities
where the service is available.
The bill, introduced by subcom-
mittee Chairman Robert W. Kas-
tenmeier (D-Wis.) in the House and
Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) in the Sen-
ate, does- not deal with the more
difficult issue of "cordless" tele-
phones, which use a lower-frequen-
cy radio signal.
Since those conversations are
often picked up unintentionally on
FM radio receivers- it was decided
that cordless telephone users
should assume that their conversa-
tions may be overheard.
The bill contains several provi-
sions to make it easier for federal
law enforcement agencies to obtain
court-approved wiretaps. It would
expand the categories of crimes for
which a wiretap may be approved,
as well as the number of officials in
the justice Department who can
approve such a request to the court.
It would also allow for court ap-
proval of a new type of wiretap
when a suspect uses pay tele-
phones. In such a case, the agent
could obtain approval to follow the
suspect, then call the telephone
company and have a wiretap acti-
vated for that conversation.
The bill would also make it a mis-
demeanor to use a satellite dish to
intercept subscription television
signals, but only if the information
is then used commercially.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706710006-8