FBI budget request raises questions

From ABC News:

The budget request shows that the FBI is currently developing a new "Advanced Electronic Surveillance" program which is being funded at $233.9 million for 2010. The program has 133 employees, 15 of whom are agents.

According to the budget documents released Thursday, the program, otherwise known as "Going Dark," supports the FBI's electronic surveillance intelligence collection and evidence gathering capabilities, as well as those of the greater Intelligence Community.

"The term 'Going Dark' does not refer to a specific capability, but is a program name for the part of the FBI, Operational Technology Division's (OTD) lawful interception program which is shared with other law enforcement agencies," an FBI spokesman said.

... the program is designed to help the agency deal with changing technology and ways to intercept phone calls such as those used by VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phones or technology such as Skype.

That is rather interesting, considering that in 2008, there were only 10 electronic communications intercept court orders requested nation wide (by both Federal and State law enforcement). As for Skype and other encrypted communications -- again in 2008, only two instances of encryption were encountered, and neither posed a barrier to investigators, who were still able to obtain the information they wanted.

So. Either we're paying 23 million in development/staff costs per intercept (assuming the number has stayed the same since 2008), electronic intercepts have jumped in number by an order of magnitude, or.... the FBI and other agencies are engaging in electronic surveillance in a way that evades the traditional reporting requirements for wiretap and intercept orders. I wonder which it is?

Feds submit 20k phone location requests per year, no warrant required

Update: the lazy amongst you can read Ethan Zuckerman's summary of the lecture. You're missing out though, really.

Last week, the Berkman Center hosted Al Gidari, a partner at Perkins Coie, who frequently represents some of the major telecom companies as well as a few household names in the Web 2.0 world. Most famously, he represented Google, and helped to fight off the Department of Justice's request for search logs.

I was super happy to have helped to bring Al to Berkman. He is one of the most knowledgeable people out there on the obscure and shadowy world of surveillance law.

Perhaps the most interesting gem for me was Al's mention that the wireless carriers each receive about 100 requests per week from law enforcement for the location information on consumers. Most importantly, one request can be for "every person using this particular cell tower in a 10 minute span" -- and thus, can apply to hundreds or thousands of people.

100 requests per week * 4 wireless carriers (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) * 52 weeks = 20,800 requests per year, none of which require a warrant or judicial oversight. Scary.

If you only watch one lecture this year, watch this. I've embedded the video here, but Flash-streaming version, and downloadable mp4s/mp3s for your iPod can be found at the Berkman Center site.