It’s a good thing that the US government is required to release reports on its surveillance activities. It’s a bad thing that it ignored the requirement. It’s a good thing that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued to compel the release of the data.
And a quick perusal of the released data — the US Attorney General’s reports on the use of pen register and trap and trace surveillance for 2010 and 2011 — provides the motivation for the government’s initial refusal to release the information: The US federal government surveilled more telephone records using trap-and-trace and pen register methodologies in the last two years than in the entire last decade; a whopping increase of 360 percent from 2009-11.
It’s important to note that this information covers the US government’s surveillance of data about telephone calls but not the actual content of the telephone calls. Trap-and-trace captures incoming data like the addresses of email and Short Message Service (SMS) text messages. Pen register captures similar outgoing data.
This non-content surveillance is much more widespread because it’s much easier for a law enforcement agency to obtain. In order for a law enforcement agency to obtain a content-based wiretap, it must prove to a judge that such surveillance is essential to an investigation. For non-content surveillance, the law enforcement agency need only certify it to be relevant to an investigation.
It’s also interesting to note what this data doesn’t cover: Surveillance under the National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless wiretapping program; email stored by third-party providers; and mobile phone location tracking.
The ACLU is calling for a Congressional requirement of more judicial oversight of the non-content surveillance activities by the US government and regular release of the relevant data.
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Just before Halloween, in the latest disclosure of US surveillance - Spook surveillance de-pantsing follow-up
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US surveillance statistics rise dramatically was originally published by ARTS & FARCES internet on Wednesday, 3 October 2012 at 11:46 AM CDT. Copyright © ARTS & FARCES LLC. All rights reserved. | ISSN: 1535-8119 | OCLC: 48219498 | Digital fingerprint: 974a89ee1284e6e92dd256bbfbef3751 (64.237.45.114)