Roving wiretap

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A roving wiretap is a wiretap specific to the United States that follows the surveillance target. For instance, if a target attempts to trying to defeat surveillance by throwing away a phone and picking up a new phone or by moving or whatever method he would use, another surveillance order would need to be applied for. However, a "roving" wiretap follows the target, and defeats the targets attempts at breaking the surveillance by changing location or their communications technology. It is allowed under amendments made to Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (the "Wiretap Statute") in 1988 by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and was later expanded by section 604 of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999.^[1][2]

They are controversial because a roving wiretap can be done under a court order that does not name a specific telephone line or e-mail account but allows the government to tap any phone line, cell phone, or Internet account that a suspect uses. This is problematic because it conflicts with the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Innocent civilians may also be the inadvertent target of surveillance.^[3]

[edit] External links

• Electronic Frontier Foundation's wiretap page
• Center for Democracy and Technology's wiretap page

[edit] References

1. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office.H.R. 3694
2. ^ Fred E. Foldvary (1999). "Roving Wiretaps", The Progress Report. Accessed 30th June 2007.
3. ^ Center for Democracy and Technology (July 2006). "The Nature and Scope of Governmental Electronic Surveillance Activity"

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