Ottawa Demands Greater Wiretap Access

Government officials insist their proposals will bring Canada's laws on wiretaps -- drafted when people still attached alligator clips to telephone lines to listen in -- up to speed with new technologies. But privacy advocates fear an erosion of safeguards, and telecom companies worry the government wants them to build in a costly interception system. In essence, the bill would require telephone, wireless or Internet-service providers to gradually build into their networks a capacity to duplicate their clients' Internet and phone use and transmit the data to the police. But the bill also will set requirements for how many such wiretaps the companies must be able to conduct. The latest government proposal would set complex rules that each service provider must eventually be able to conduct at least two simultaneous interceptions on each local network, even if it serves only a tiny rural area, and as many as 64 per local network in big cities, sources told The Globe and Mail. That would be capped nationally at one "access point" per 5,000 subscribers - a ratio of Canada's roughly 41 million telephone, wireless, and Internet subscribers that adds up to a capacity to conduct more than 8,000 simultaneous interceptions around the clock, every day of the year. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051011.wxaccess11/BNStory/National/ [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 12, 2005]

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