Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 00:52 GMT
From: 0005066432@mcimail.com
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Surrepticious Recording of Calls in a Federal Agency
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 770, Message 11 of 11

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 telecom digest 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: This is better suited for continued discussion in
the comp.privacy forum (where I think you also posted it), but I place
it here for people who might not have seen it so they can reply to you
direct or via comp.privacy. Rules pertaining to employers listening to
calls in the conduct of their business are a bit different than rules
pertaining to third parties just simply snooping illegally on others.
I do not think employers have to announce each and every call they
listen to as long as it is generally known by employees that the
employer may monitor the phones from time to time in an effort to
improve call handling effeciency, etc. This would even apply in the
case of the government *as an employer* I think, although obviously
there are safeguards in place such as you describe when the government
*as a governor* listens to your calls.  

The difference between being *employed* by the government and being
*governed* by the government is simply that while you have no
practical choice in the latter case (thus are afforded consititutional
protections against abuse) in the former case no one is guarenteed or
entitled to government employment (or employment by anyone else for
that matter). The employer (or anyone who pays for the telephones) is
entitled to supervise phone use. You say your personal calls may get
overheard also? Well, your personal calls have no place on the
employer's phone system. If this is a problem, make personal calls
from the payphone in the hallway; your employer is NOT permitted to
listen to those calls ever!  PAT]