Wiretapping became widespread following the passing of the Patriot Act. Wiretapping was long being used for national safety and citizen protection. While few legal wiretaps are being conducted on a routine basis, the reality is that illegal wiretaps are becoming more prevalent as our country matures and advances its technological innovations. What is wiretapping? Wiretapping is the interception of a phone, internet, or any other communications transmission by encrypting the third party stream tapped into the routine stream. In order to replicate the transmission to the third party line, splitters are used which deviate routine transmission streams into any device capable of recording such transmissions. In a sense, it is a form of electronic eavesdropping. But when is such actions crossing the line?
Mark Klein, an engineer who worked for AT&T for many years, has come forth and announced that AT&T had been secretly tapping into our internet lines and copying all transmission streams being sent and received regardless of what such information contains. The internet cables were replicating all data streams being processed through AT&T’s servers which not only included their customers, but other companies’ customers as well. Why is such information being pulled on a large scale? AT&T has remained tight lipped about the entire operation as anyone involved had been issued a gag order.
How was Mark Klein able to remain immune to the gag order imposed on anyone involved? That’s because Klein was not involved. He was competent enough to comprehend the exact nature of why large transmission cables were being relocated to a maximum security room. According to Klein, AT&T installed splitters to the transmission cables to replicate all incoming and outgoing transmissions. Now that AT&T has been unveiled regarding the illegal wiretap operation, where does this stand with the ethical principles of this country?
Since the unveiling, this ordeal has erupted into a large bombshell considering the secrecy involved and the amount of information being pulled. Klein has stepped forward urging Congress to refrain from issuing the telecommunications companies immunity for such actions. Klein has teamed up with lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation which opened a class action lawsuit against AT&T [Hepting v. AT&T] in federal court.
Wiretapping holds its benefits for national security as well as citizen protection; however, it is crucial to maintain a strict provisional guideline, to regulate how wiretaps may be performed. It is evident that if unregulated wiretapping becomes prevalent in our society, the hunger for power will emerge and the rights our founding fathers established for us can be considered a thing of the past. Not only will such actions open the door for even more privacy infringing activities, the structure of our country may collapse without the proper balance of power.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/07/AR2007110700006.html#
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs9-wrtp.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment