106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 514

AN ACT

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to

eavesdropping, and for other purposes.strengthen and clarify prohibitions on electronic
106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 514

AN ACT

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to strengthen

and clarify prohibitions on electronic eavesdropping, and

for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Wireless Privacy En3 hancement Act of 1999’’.

4 SEC. 2. COMMERCE IN ELECTRONIC EAVESDROPPING DE5 VICES.

6 (a) PROHIBITION ON MODIFICATION.—Section

7 302(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C.

8 302a(b)) is amended by inserting before the period at the

9 end thereof the following: ‘‘, or modify any such device,

10 equipment, or system in any manner that causes such de11 vice, equipment, or system to fail to comply with such reg12 ulations’’.

13 (b) PROHIBITION ON COMMERCE IN SCANNING RE14 CEIVERS.—Section 302(d) of such Act (47 U.S.C.

15 302a(d)) is amended to read as follows:

16 ‘‘(d) EQUIPMENT AUTHORIZATION REGULATIONS.—

17 ‘‘(1) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS REQUIRED.—The

18 Commission shall prescribe regulations, and review

19 and revise such regulations as necessary in response

20 to subsequent changes in technology or behavior, de21 nying equipment authorization (under part 15 of

22 title 47, Code of Federal Regulations, or any other

23 part of that title) for any scanning receiver that is

24 capable of—

25 ‘‘(A) receiving transmissions in the fre26 quencies that are allocated to the domestic cel-
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1 lular radio telecommunications service or the

2 personal communications service;

3 ‘‘(B) readily being altered to receive trans4 missions in such frequencies;

5 ‘‘(C) being equipped with decoders that—

6 ‘‘(i) convert digital domestic cellular

7 radio telecommunications service, personal

8 communications service, or protected spe9 cialized mobile radio service transmissions

10 to analog voice audio; or

11 ‘‘(ii) convert protected paging service

12 transmissions to alphanumeric text; or

13 ‘‘(D) being equipped with devices that oth14 erwise decode encrypted radio transmissions for

15 the purposes of unauthorized interception.

16 ‘‘(2) PRIVACY PROTECTIONS FOR SHARED FRE17 QUENCIES.—The Commission shall, with respect to

18 scanning receivers capable of receiving transmissions

19 in frequencies that are used by commercial mobile

20 services and that are shared by public safety users,

21 examine methods, and may prescribe such regula22 tions as may be necessary, to enhance the privacy of

23 users of such frequencies.

24 ‘‘(3) TAMPERING PREVENTION.—In prescribing

25 regulations pursuant to paragraph (1), the Commis-
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1 sion shall consider defining ‘capable of readily being

2 altered’ to require scanning receivers to be manufac3 tured in a manner that effectively precludes alter4 ation of equipment features and functions as nec5 essary to prevent commerce in devices that may be

6 used unlawfully to intercept or divulge radio commu7 nication.

8 ‘‘(4) WARNING LABELS.—In prescribing regula9 tions under paragraph (1), the Commission shall

10 consider requiring labels on scanning receivers warn11 ing of the prohibitions in Federal law on inten12 tionally intercepting or divulging radio communica13 tions.

14 ‘‘(5) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this subsection,

15 the term ‘protected’ means secured by an electronic

16 method that is not published or disclosed except to

17 authorized users, as further defined by Commission

18 regulation.’’.

19 (c) IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS.—Within 90 days

20 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal Com21 munications Commission shall prescribe amendments to

22 its regulations for the purposes of implementing the

23 amendments made by this section.
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1 SEC. 3. UNAUTHORIZED INTERCEPTION OR PUBLICATION

2 OF COMMUNICATIONS.

3 Section 705 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

4 U.S.C. 605) is amended—

5 (1) in the heading of such section, by inserting

6 ‘‘INTERCEPTION OR’’ after ‘‘UNAUTHORIZED’’;

7 (2) in the first sentence of subsection (a), by

8 striking ‘‘Except as authorized by chapter 119, title

9 18, United States Code, no person’’ and inserting

10 ‘‘No person’’;

11 (3) in the second sentence of subsection (a)—

12 (A) by inserting ‘‘intentionally’’ before

13 ‘‘intercept’’; and

14 (B) by striking ‘‘communication and di15 vulge’’ and inserting ‘‘communication, and no

16 person having intercepted such a communica17 tion shall intentionally divulge’’;

18 (4) in the fourth sentence of subsection (a)—

19 (A) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ after ‘‘intercepted,

20 shall’’; and

21 (B) by striking ‘‘thereof) or’’ and inserting

22 ‘‘thereof); or (B)’’;

23 (5) by striking the last sentence of subsection

24 (a) and inserting the following: ‘‘Nothing in this

25 subsection prohibits an interception or disclosure of
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1 a communication as authorized by chapter 119 of

2 title 18, United States Code.’’;

3 (6) in subsection (e)(1)—

4 (A) by striking ‘‘fined not more than

5 $2,000 or’’; and

6 (B) by inserting ‘‘or fined under title 18,

7 United States Code,’’ after ‘‘6 months,’’;

8 (7) in subsection (e)(3), by striking ‘‘any viola9 tion’’ and inserting ‘‘any receipt, interception, divul10 gence, publication, or utilization of any communica11 tion in violation’’;

12 (8) in subsection (e)(4), by striking ‘‘any other

13 activity prohibited by subsection (a)’’ and inserting

14 ‘‘any receipt, interception, divulgence, publication, or

15 utilization of any communication in violation of sub16 section (a)’’; and

17 (9) by adding at the end of subsection (e) the

18 following new paragraph:

19 ‘‘(7) Notwithstanding any other investigative or en20 forcement activities of any other Federal agency, the Com21 mission shall investigate alleged violations of this section

22 and may proceed to initiate action under section 503 of

23 this Act to impose forfeiture penalties with respect to such
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1 violation upon conclusion of the Commission’s investiga2 tion.’’.

Passed the House of Representatives February 25,

1999.

Attest:

Clerk.