Wiretapping facts for kids
Wiretapping, also known as telephone tapping, is when someone secretly listens to phone calls or watches what people do online. It's called "wiretapping" because long ago, people actually connected wires to phone lines to listen in.
Sometimes, governments can legally wiretap, which is called "lawful interception." There are two main types:
- Passive wiretapping means just listening or recording.
- Active wiretapping means changing or affecting the conversation.
Is Wiretapping Legal?
Many countries have strict rules about wiretapping to protect people's privacy. In most free countries, governments usually need special permission from a court to listen in. This permission is often only given if there's strong proof that a serious crime is happening and there's no other way to find out.
Listening in without permission is often against the law. Even if an illegally recorded call is used as evidence in some places, the person who did the illegal tapping can still get into trouble.
Wiretapping Rules in the United States
In the United States, federal spy agencies can get permission for wiretaps from a special secret court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Sometimes, the Attorney General can allow it without a court order in certain situations.
Laws about recording phone calls are different in various U.S. states. In most states, only one person on the call needs to know it's being recorded. But in some states, like Nevada, everyone on the call must agree to be recorded. It's always a good idea to say at the start of a call if you're recording it.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects your privacy. It says that police usually need a special paper called a "warrant" to search your things. Wiretapping can be tricky because some people think it invades privacy and goes against the Fourth Amendment. However, laws like the Patriot Act allow the government to wiretap citizens in certain cases. Because laws change from state to state, it can be hard to know if the Fourth Amendment is being broken.
Wiretapping Rules in Canada
In Canada, police can wiretap without a court order if there's an immediate danger, like a kidnapping or a bomb threat. They must believe it's instantly needed to stop a harmful illegal act. This rule was added in 2013.
Canadian law protects "private communications," meaning talks where people don't expect others to listen. One person can secretly record a conversation they are part of. But usually, police need a court order to record a conversation they are not part of. A legal wiretap order must say:
- The crime being investigated.
- The type of communication.
- Who or what places are being watched.
- How long the order is good for (usually 60 days).
Wiretapping Rules in India
In India, authorized law enforcement groups can legally listen to communications. This is done under specific rules from the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885. Only high-ranking government officials can order an interception.
The government has a system called the Centralized Monitoring System (CMS) to help with legal wiretapping. This system balances national security with people's privacy and free speech. There are special committees that review these orders to make sure privacy is protected. The law also allows wiretapping during public emergencies or for public safety.
How Wiretapping Works
Official Wiretapping Methods
Governments often require phone companies to help law enforcement with wiretapping. In the U.S., a law called CALEA makes phone companies cooperate.
Years ago, when phone systems were mechanical, technicians had to physically connect wires to tap a line. Now, many phone systems are digital. This makes tapping much easier because it can be done remotely by computers. The computer simply copies the digital sound of the conversation to another line. It's impossible to tell if a digital line is being tapped.
A well-made tap on a phone wire can be very hard to find. Sometimes, law enforcement can even access a mobile phone's microphone when it's not being used, unless the phone's battery is removed. Noises you might hear on a phone line that sound like a tap are usually just "crosstalk," which is when signals from other phone lines mix in.
Phone companies automatically collect information about calls, like who called whom, when, and for how long. This is for billing. Security services can often get this information more easily than getting a full wiretap. This is called a "pen register" tap if only call details are recorded, not the conversation itself.
Unofficial Wiretapping Methods
People can record or listen to phone calls unofficially, either by tapping without anyone knowing or by one person recording the conversation. Whether this is legal depends on the situation and the laws of the area.
There are several ways to secretly listen to phone calls:
- Recording devices: One person on the call can record it using a tape recorder, a digital recorder, or computer software. The recording can start manually, automatically when sound is detected, or when the phone is picked up.
- Induction coils: These small coils can be placed near a phone to pick up its signals.
- Direct electrical connections: Someone can connect a device directly to the phone line anywhere in the system.
- In-ear microphones: Using a tiny microphone in the ear while holding the phone normally can pick up both sides of the conversation.
- Speakerphone recording: Simply using a speakerphone and recording with a regular microphone.
The tapped signal can be recorded right where the tap is, or sent by radio or over the phone wires to another location. Modern tapping equipment can be very small and hard to detect. Some devices can even get power from the phone line itself, so they don't need batteries.
Older cordless phones were easy to listen to with a simple radio scanner. But newer digital cordless phones use special technology and encryption, making it much harder to eavesdrop.
One challenge with recording phone calls is that the voices of the two speakers might sound very different in volume. Special, more expensive equipment can fix this problem.
Mobile Phone Location Data
Mobile phones can be a big source of information for surveillance. They collect data about calls, including the time, length, who called, and who was called. They also record the location of the cell tower the call was made from, which gives an approximate geographical location. This information is very useful for understanding who is talking to whom.
It's also possible to get a more exact location of a phone by using information from several cell towers around it. This extra precision usually needs to be turned on by the phone company.
Internet Wiretapping
In 1995, a special agent named Peter Garza conducted the first court-ordered Internet wiretap in the U.S.
As new technologies like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, which lets you make calls over the internet) appear, new questions come up about how law enforcement can access these communications. In 2004, the government said that companies providing internet and VoIP services must allow law enforcement to monitor communications on their networks.
Illegal internet wiretapping often happens through Wi-Fi. Someone might break into a Wi-Fi network by cracking its password. Once they're in, they can use special tools to view the data packets (small pieces of information) traveling over the network.
Mobile Phone Tapping
Older mobile phones (from the late 1970s to 1990) used analog signals, so anyone with a radio scanner could easily listen in. Newer digital phones are harder to monitor because their signals are encoded and compressed. However, governments can still tap mobile phones with the help of the phone company. Organizations with the right equipment can also monitor and decrypt mobile phone conversations.
A device called an "IMSI-catcher" can pretend to be a real cell tower. This tricks mobile phones into connecting to it, allowing someone to listen in on calls between the phone and the network. There's no easy way to defend against this, except by using special "secure phones" that encrypt calls from one end to the other. These phones are often expensive.
Webtapping
"Webtapping" means logging the internet addresses (IP addresses) of users who visit certain websites. This is used to monitor websites that might contain dangerous or sensitive materials, and the people who visit them. While allowed by some laws, many people question if it's right.
Recording Your Own Calls in Canada
In Canada, it's legal for anyone to record a conversation as long as they are part of that conversation. Police, however, must get a warrant (a special permission from a judge) before they can legally listen in on a conversation they are not part of. This warrant is only given if it's expected to help find evidence of a crime.
History of Wiretapping
Wiretapping began in the 1890s, after the telephone recorder was invented. Early laws in the U.S. tried to stop people from listening in on telegraph messages. The U.S. Supreme Court said wiretapping was legal in 1928.
Many U.S. Presidents have used wiretaps, sometimes with a legal warrant. For example, in 1963, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy allowed the FBI to wiretap the communications of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. These wiretaps continued for several years.
The first telephone was invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. In the 1890s, police started tapping phone lines. Early phone systems connected wires directly for each call. Human operators handled other services like call forwarding. But in 1965, the first computerized phone switch was developed, which changed how wiretapping worked.
During World War II, the Nazis tried to secure their phone lines. But a French engineer named Robert Keller found a way to tap their lines without them knowing. His group helped the Allies. Sadly, he was later betrayed and died in 1945.
In the 1970s, optical fibers became important for telecommunications. These thin glass strands carry signals using laser light. They are more secure than radio signals and are now very cheap. Today, most communications between fixed places use fiber optic cables.
The earliest wiretaps were simply extra wires added to the phone line. Later, taps were installed at the main phone offices.
Before World War II, there were many discussions in the U.S. about whether wiretapping was legal for national defense. This topic became even more important during the war. Today, similar debates happen regarding wiretapping in the "war on terror."
In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that wiretapping needs a warrant. In 1968, Congress passed a law allowing warrants for wiretapping in criminal cases. In 1978, a law called FISA created a "secret federal court" to issue wiretap warrants for national security cases. This happened after the Watergate scandal, which showed that presidents had sometimes used surveillance on political groups.
In 1994, Congress passed a law called CALEA, which requires phone companies to be able to install more effective wiretaps. In 2005, the government said that internet and VoIP service providers also fall under this law. This means they must provide access to law enforcement for monitoring communications.
In 2007, the FISA law was changed to allow the government to monitor more communications without a warrant. In 2008, President George W. Bush expanded the surveillance of internet traffic to and from the U.S.
A big wiretapping case happened in Greece in 2004-2005. Over 100 mobile phones of government officials, including the Prime Minister, were illegally tapped for at least a year. The Greek government believed a foreign spy agency did this for security reasons related to the 2004 Olympic Games.
In 2005, a big controversy started in the U.S. when it was discovered that the NSA (National Security Agency) was wiretapping without warrants. President George W. Bush said he allowed it to keep America safe from terrorism after the September 11 attacks.
When American intelligence services operate in other countries, it's harder for them to place wiretaps on phone lines compared to inside the U.S. Outside the country, intercepting communications is a huge operation. The NSA spends billions of dollars every year intercepting foreign communications from ground bases, ships, airplanes, and satellites.
FISA laws treat U.S. citizens and foreigners differently, and also distinguish between communications inside and outside the U.S., and between wired and wireless communications. Wired communications inside the United States are generally protected and need a warrant to be intercepted.
Images for kids
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Telephone line control device "Jitka", used in late 1960s by Czechoslovakian secret police to signal line occupancy, and connect a recorder
In Spanish: Escucha telefónica para niños
- Echelon (signals intelligence)
- Indiscriminate monitoring
- Harvest now, decrypt later
- Mass surveillance
- Phone hacking
- Secure telephone
- Telephone tapping in the Eastern Bloc
