CONGRESS vs TECHNOLOGY By Glen L. Roberts There are two distinct concepts relating to privacy. First, legal privacy, whereby your privacy is protected by law. A violator of your legal privacy may suffer some form of criminal or civil penalty if caught, and successfully prosecuted. The other privacy concept might be called true privacy. This is where your privacy is protected, because no one else has access to your private affairs. The line often gets blurred, because Congress, the courts and others grant a legal privacy that creates a bogus true privacy. Look at cellular phones. A cellular phone operates by broadcasting over radio waves. Since the cellular phone user is broadcasting the conversation over radio waves, no true privacy is afforded the conversation. Until 1986, cellular phone calls had no legal privacy. In 1986 Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). It outlawed the monitoring of cellular phone calls (except when law enforcement agencies obtained wire-tap authorization from a court). However, the ECPA is as ineffective at ensuring the privacy of cellular phone calls as the technology that broadcasts it. The ECPA is no more effective than a law forbidding you from listening to WGN radio. Nor any more enforceable. In October, 1992, they outlawed, the manufacture or importation of scanning radios that can receive cellular telephone frequencies. Sale and possession is ok. Again, if Congress outlawed the manufacture of radios capable of receiving WGN, those who can already pick up WGN would keep listening. The same goes for the millions that have scanners capable of monitoring cellular phone calls. The cellular phone monitoring is more involved. Because of the nature of the scanning radios, signals can be received on their "image." That means that if a cellular conversation is taking place at 890.025mhz, an intelligible image will exist 21.4 mhz higher, and the conversation will also be heard at 911.425mhz. Scanners manufactured after the ban takes place will have the 870-892mhz range blocked out. The calls will still be monitored from 892-914mhz! We must also remember, that car phones were originally at lower bands Where will the next generation operate? How long will it to amend the legislation to outlaw scanners in the new range? Some of the commercial cellular interception systems are made from regular cellular phones. Some are easily modified so that the mobile phone number is altered to match the target's number. So, today, with two laws ensuring the privacy of our cellular phone calls, Congress tells us we are secure! If we believe in Congress, we are open to great risk. This situation leads to a great gap in the balance of power between those who understand the technology and those who believe in the official version of how it operates. The rapid advancement of technology widens this gap daily. The introduction of caller-id service, where the recipient of a call gets the phone number of the caller, brought a number of add-on services. First, caller-id blocking to protect the privacy of the caller so his number is no longer displayed. Soon came blocking anonymous calls (ACR). When activated, anyone who tries to block their number will receive a recording informing them that the person they are calling does not accept blocked calls. Bell Atlantic informed all of their C&P Telephone customers in Maryland of this new service. They forgot to tell them about the holes in it. Quite simply, if a call is placed through a private caller-id blocking service (for example 1-900-STOPPER) the call goes through. When confronted with this fact, Bell Atlantic attorneys agreed with the technical aspects of the situation, but refused to notify the public of the limitations due to a fear of ``promoting'' private caller-id blocking services. The Court of Appeals recently declared that ``>when [cordless] phone users reasonably expect their conversations to be private, the government can't listen in.'' Of course, they failed to define what exactly ``>reasonably expect'' means. They didn't go into detail, but mentioned that some of the newer units had a shorter range, and therefore the users would have a greater expectation of privacy. This is simply absurd. People look for greater range, not shorter for their cordless phones. Some people violate FCC regulations and use attic antennas or export only units to increase the range. Yet, even the new legal privacy afforded some cordless phone users only limits the government's use of the information in a criminal prosecution, not the listening in by private individuals. The government's prohibition on the use of the information is anything but clear-cut. Your privacy is only protected by a long court battle, after the information has been obtained and it has been used against you. And, some say that privacy is the right to be left alone! If we compare the operation of technology with the conceptualization by Congress and the legal system, we find that technology is simple and straightforward. Looking at congressional understanding of privacy is like jumping into a can of worms and snakes. Privacy means keeping your information, not punishment after its been made public. Unfortunately in most circumstances, whoever violates your privacy and mis-uses the information is not identifiable (to be punished). Perhaps a neighbor gets his jollies listening to your phone calls or a competitor collects business intelligence from your calls. Your privacy is invaded, yet you have no recourse against these unknowns. Ultimately, either can cause damage, simply because they know aspects of you believed to be private. Reliance on technology, using protective devices (scramblers) or using that technology which supports your desire for privacy (wired phones), means that the information doesn't get out as easily in the first place. Potentially a true privacy. Today, one really must have knowledge of technology and actually apply that knowledge to reduce the potential for compromise. Superior Broadcasting Company, Box 734-N, Antioch, Illinois 60002. Request sample newsletter and catalog: (708) 356-9646