Date: Tue, 6 Oct 92 13:31 GMT
From: "Tansin A. Darcos & Company" <0005066432@mcimail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.society.privacy
Subject: Question on Surrepticious recording of calls in a Federal Agency
Organization: Computer Privacy Digest
X-Submissions-To: comp-privacy@pica.army.mil
X-Administrivia-To: comp-privacy-request@pica.army.mil
X-Computer-Privacy-Digest: Volume 1, Issue 088, Message 12 of 12

I have a question I am posting from my own Internet account (which I pay
for out of my own pocket) so I can state this specifically and ask a
public question which might be inappropriate for me to ask from a
government account. 

I am a private employee of a contractor to a government agency.  I work
out of that agency but I am not a government employee. 

Some rumors have been floating around to the effect that this agency is
now and/or was recording (unannounced to anyone) telephone calls at this
agency, either calls made from the agency, calls made to the agency, or
both, and perhaps only on certain phone lines. 

The rumor has it that in one instance a person (a former federal
employee) got to hear a playback of a recording of some personal calls
they made where they were not supposed to be doing so. 

For obvious reasons, unless I have solid legal grounding to know whether
or not this form of activity is legal or otherwise, I would like to get
some background from a Internet news group reader who knows what the law
says, or has a copy of the laws dealing with this. 

Please note that I am *NOT* referring to SMDR taping or pen registers,
which is what I thought the person who told me this was referring to
(which would record phone numbers dialed; that is not what I am talking
about; I am talking about the (surrepticious) recording of the audio
content of telephone calls.) 

Question: Even for a government agency, is it legal for them to record
calls without notification to the parties involved?  I believe this not
only violates the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act but might also violate the
more recent Electronic Communications Protection Act. 

I for one don't have anything to worry about; the most I've done is call
MCI's 800 number - which is okay since the agency isn't charged for the
call - but I wonder about the legality of this. 

Also, I note that this agency does have a special reports office to
accept calls from the public and reports to the agency by employees,
people under its jurisdiction, and the public, and the first thing the
person on that line does when he or she answers is to report that the
line is recorded.  Which strikes me as odd, if the rumor I'm hearing is
true. 

I thought the only time where a call could be recorded without the
knowledge of the people on the call - even in a federal agency - is
either if there is a wiretap order from a court or it's a security or
law enforcement agency such as the FBI, NSA, CIA or other such. This
agency is not generally a law enforcement agency. 

Could someone tell me if I'm wrong and this type of activity is legal? 


These opinions ARE those of the owner of this account. 
And nobody else's. 

[Moderator's Note:  I work for a federal agency (U.S. Army).  On all of
our phones a label that states "This telephone is subject to monitoring
at all times.  Use of this telephone constitues consent to monitoring".
Since it cleary states the policy I can not object to it.  I can go to a
nearby phone and conduct my personal and private business.  
  I have talked with our telecom folks and they have more or less said
that monitoring is mainly for security purposes (prevent people from
talking classified phones) not for criminal investigation purposes.

 ._dennis]