White House proposes changes to wiretap laws

IDG News Service - WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is seeking to update U.S. wiretap laws to take into account the latest technology and at the same time add provisions that strengthen individual privacy, a top administration official said Monday.

The proposals, which are being discussed with members of Congress who have proposed similar legislation, come amid a torrent of criticism of a wiretap application nicknamed "Carnivore" that the FBI has used to intercept e-mail sent and received by suspects in criminal investigations.

The FBI acknowledged last week that it is using Carnivore, which plugs in to an Internet service provider's equipment, but the agency said the application is able to target the e-mail traffic of an individual suspect.

But Carnivore was criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union and privacy advocates, who say it's not as selective as law enforcement officials say and that it puts the privacy of law-abiding citizens at risk because of its potential to scan and analyze large volumes of e-mail messages.

The new proposals put forth by the Clinton administration Monday were outlined at a press briefing by White House chief of staff John Podesta, who also announced new export encryption policies affecting U.S. companies that export encryption software to the 15 European Union countries and eight other U.S. allies (see story).

There is no link between the updated encryption policies, which have been sought by encryption software vendors, and the wiretap proposals, Podesta said. The proposals are legislative protections needed to "map" privacy principles onto the latest technology, he said.

"It's time to update and harmonize our existing laws to give all forms of technology the same legislative protections as our telephone conversations," Podesta said.

The proposals would apply the same tough but workable standards to accessing e-mail that are currently used when investigators wiretap telephone calls.

Those standards require a court order and approval from a high-level U.S. Department of Justice official for all telephone wiretaps and allow wiretapping only during the investigation of serious crimes, such as espionage and violent crimes.

In cases where police want to find out with whom a suspect is communicating over the Internet, the new proposals would apply a slightly tougher standard than exists for wiretapping phone calls.

Under current law, when police officers seek the phone numbers a suspect has dialed or the phone numbers of people who have dialed the suspect through "trap and trace" or "pen register" methods, a judge must issue the order after police certify certain standards have been met. Under the White House proposals,