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- Xref: sparky sci.crypt:4446 comp.org.eff.talk:6843 alt.privacy:2137 talk.politics.guns:23727
- Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!guvax.acc.georgetown.edu!denning
- From: denning@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
- Newsgroups: sci.crypt,comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,talk.politics.guns
- Subject: Re: Registered Keys - why the need?
- Message-ID: <1992Nov7.145606.1684@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu>
- Date: 7 Nov 92 14:56:06 -0500
- References: <715.517.uupcb@grapevine.lrk.ar.us> <1992Nov01.233637.138278@watson.ibm.com> <DLB.92Nov4100421@fanny.wash.inmet.com>
- Distribution: world
- Organization: Georgetown University
- Lines: 39
-
- In article <DLB.92Nov4100421@fanny.wash.inmet.com>, dlb@fanny.wash.inmet.com (David Barton) writes:
- > <1992Nov3.090942.1626@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu>
- > The average cost of a wiretap in 1991 was $45K. Most of this goes
- > to labor. Those of you who think that law enforcers are likely to
- > start tapping everyone with or without a warrant need to do a
- > reality check on cost and government budgets. Assuming there are
- > about 100 million lines, the total cost to listen in on them all
- > would be $4.5 trillion!
- >
- > I am sorry, but this line of argument is absurd. If the government
- > were to attempt wide-scale wiretaps, it would not be so stupid as to
- > tap each individual lines. Most phone communications includes at
-
- The main cost, I believe, is the labor of listening, not the labor of
- installing the intercept. They put 2 people on simultaneously for 3
- shifts a day and 7 days a week. Although my back of the envelope
- calculation fails to account for the savings that would come from
- scaling, the real costs for large scale surveillance would nonetheless
- have to be staggering. It would be like going back to the use of
- human beings for the telephone switches!
-
- But perhaps the more important point is that they could not do it
- because it is illegal under Title 18 to tap without an order. I
- really don't see how some gov't agency could embark on massive
- surveillance without someone finding out and throwing the books at
- them.
-
- Another point about intercepts that seems to be misunderstood has to
- do with minimization. If the gov't is listening, they have to turn it
- off if the conversation turns to something unrelated to the court
- order. They can periodically check, but even with a court order they
- are not allowed to listen to everything.
-
- It's a very tedious, tiring job and law enforcers groan when they find
- out they have to do a tap. The myth of folks eager to wiretap
- everyone is nothing like the reality.
-
- Dorothy Denning
- denning@cs.georgetown.edu
-