The FBI and Wiretaps
To aid their Wall Street investigations, the FBI used DCSNet, their massive surveillance system.
Prosecutors are using the FBI’s massive surveillance system, DCSNet, which stands for Digital Collection System Network. According to Wired magazine, this system connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It can be used to instantly wiretap almost any communications device in the U.S.—wireless or tethered. In other words, you and I have no privacy. The government can listen in on any call made in the continental U.S. (This is all well and good if you trust every government employee. But what if an attorney general running for higher office will do anything to finger a high-profile target? Or what if a prosecutor has a personal grudge he’d like to fulfill? It seems to me it would be easy for this power to fall into the wrong hands.)
Milan • November 2, 2009 9:18 AM
Does the NSA have an independent system that does the same thing? If so, it seems like a lot of wasteful duplication (even if you are indifferent to the privacy and legal implications of this sort of wholesale surveillance).