Thousands of Wiretaps, Each Impacting Over One Hundred People
Authorized; Two Denied
According to the latest report to Congress by the US Courts,
there were 2,732 applications for wiretaps submitted to all federal and to half
of the state courts in 2011. Half the
states did not report on their numbers, so these numbers are certainly quite
much too low. Also, the term wiretap is
out of date as this process currently covers providing information on conventional
phone lines, cell phones, secret microphones, texts, fax, paging, and email-computer transmissions.
For the year 2011, out of 2,732 applications, only two were
denied. Two losses out of 2700 tries is
a comparatively good win-loss record for the surveillance folks.
On average, each wiretap intercepted the communications of
113 people; thus over three hundred thousand people had their calls intercepted.
The most prevalent reason reported for the wiretaps was drug
offenses. The average length of the
wiretap was 42 days. One federal wiretap
in Michigan resulted in intercepting over 71,000 cellular messages extending
over 202 days. A New York state wiretap
intercepted 274,210 messages over 564 days.
Company Reports on Spying Show Tens of Thousands of Requests
It is well known that user accounts at Google, Apple, and
others contain a treasure trove of information on the customer's basic
information including searches, likes and dislikes, purchases, friends, and the
like. Government investigators seek this
information tens of thousands times each year as the reports from the companies
show.
Apple reported receiving 4,000 to 5,000 government requests
for information on customers in just the last six months. From December 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013, Apple
received law-enforcement requests for customer data on 9-10,000 accounts or
devices. Most of these requests are from
police for robberies, missing children, etc.
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