The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), also known as the "Digital Telephony Act," is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton (Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279, codified at 47 USC 1001–1010).
CALEA's purpose is to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct lawful interception of communication by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have built-in capabilities for targeted surveillance, allowing federal agencies to selectively wiretap any telephone traffic; it has since been extended to cover broadband Internet and VoIP traffic. Some government agencies argue that it covers mass surveillance of communications rather than just tapping specific lines and that not all CALEA-based access requires a warrant.
Journalists and technologists have characterised the CALEA-mandated infrastructure as government backdoors.[1][2] In 2024, the U.S. government realized that China had been tapping communications in the U.S. using that infrastructure for months, or perhaps longer.[3]
The original reason for adopting CALEA was the Federal Bureau of Investigation's worry that increasing use of digital telephone exchange switches would make tapping phones at the phone company's central office harder and slower to execute, or in some cases impossible.[4] Since the original requirement to add CALEA-compliant interfaces required phone companies to modify or replace hardware and software in their systems, U.S. Congress included funding for a limited time period to cover such network upgrades.[5] CALEA was passed into law on October 25, 1994, and came into force on January 1, 1995.[5]
In the years since CALEA was passed it has been greatly expanded to include all VoIP and broadband Internet traffic. From 2004 to 2007 there was a 62 percent growth in the number of wiretaps performed under CALEA – and more than 3,000 percent growth in interception of Internet data such as email.[6]
By 2007, the FBI had spent $39 million on its Digital Collection System Network (DCSNet) system, which collects, stores, indexes, and analyzes communications data.[6]
- ^ "The 30-year-old internet backdoor law that came back to bite". 7 October 2024.
- ^ Michael Kan (7 October 2024). "Chinese Hackers Reportedly Breached ISPs Including AT&T, Verizon". PC Magazine. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
privacy researchers to call out the US government for maintaining a confidential "backdoor" to enable internet-based wiretapping. "Case in point: there's no way to build a backdoor that only the 'good guys' can use," tweeted Meredith Whittaker, president of the encrypted chat app Signal
- ^ Sarah Krouse; Dustin Volz; Aruna Viswanatha; Robert McMillan (5 October 2024). "U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 8 October 2024.
For months or longer, the hackers might have held access to network infrastructure used to cooperate with lawful U.S. requests for communications data
- ^ Trope, Konrad L. (2014). "US Government Eavesdropping on Electronic Communications: Where Are We Going?". SciTech Lawyer. 10 (2).
- ^ a b Figliola, Patricia Moloney. (2005). Digital surveillance : the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. Congressional Research Service [Library of Congress]. OCLC 61280196.
- ^ a b Singel, Ryan (29 August 2008). "Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates". Wired.com. Archived from the original on March 14, 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2010.