Technology To Hide Phone Records
Americans suddenly
fearful that the U.S. government can easily find out who they are telephoning
have software options to disguise their calling records. But information
specialists say that if the government really wants to get the information, it
likely can get it in the end. The Obama administration on Thursday defended its
collection of millions of telephone records as part of its counterterrorism
efforts. That came after Britain's Guardian newspaper published a secret court
order authorizing the collection of phone records generated by Verizon
Communications customers. Experts say that while there are plenty of services
that can make a phone number anonymous, or mask where someone is calling from,
the government can still get most of the data it wants with relative ease. "It's
really hard to feel as if you have complete confidence that you are
untraceable," said Justin Brookman, director of Center for Democracy &
Technology's Project on Consumer Privacy.
If a Skype user had
called a Verizon user, for example, the government would see the call was made
but not detect the identity of the Skype user, said Fred Cate, an Indiana
University professor specializing in information privacy law. The government
could, however, request the IP address from the video and online calling
service, he said. Although there are programs that encrypt the content of phone
conversations, Cate said some encrypted data can still tell the government when
and to whom calls are made - just not the substance of the call itself. In the
Verizon case, the alleged court order covered each phone number dialed by
customers, along with location, routing data, duration and frequency of the
calls. Contents of the phone calls were not revealed.
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