<nettime> [RRE]The European Surveillance Union

[Phil Agre <pagre@alpha.oac.ucla.edu>]

[[orig to "Red Rock Eater News Service" <rre@lists.gseis.ucla.edu>]

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Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 11:30:41 -0800
From: "Ama-gi ISPI" <Offshore@email.msn.com>
Subject: ISPI Clips 6.50: Europol's Electronic Surveillance Not Unlike NSA's ECHELON

ISPI Clips 6.50: Europol's Electronic Surveillance Not Unlike NSA's ECHELON
News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI)
Sunday November 22, 1998
ISPI4Privacy@ama-gi.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This From: TELEPOLIS: magazin der netzkultur, November 20, 1998
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/english/default.html

The European Surveillance Union:
Europol Seeks a Broad Structure for Tapping Mobile Communications

By
Erich Moechel

Austrian officials' appetite for coldly broadening their authority to
monitor private citizens
http://www.telepolis.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/1658/1.html ] is in no way a
unique case in Europe.

As a Europol internal document obtained by Telepolis shows, massive
attempts on the part of European police forces are underway to acquire the
ability to eavesdrop on the Iridium system, currently in a sensitive stage
of expansion.

The document entitled "Enfopol 98" from the group  "Police Cooperation"
dated September 3, 1998, deals with the "observation of telecommunications"
and primarily addresses the so-called satellite-supported personal
communication systems (S-PCS), but also the Internet. On the recommendation
of the European Union, a list of points desired by the  European police
http://www.ecu-notes.org/atoz997/europol.html was drawn up as a "Draft for
a Recommended Resolution" in order to simplify the passage of the
resolution. The terrestrial  gateway stations are to provide
[ http://www.iridium.com/gateways/neurope/inside/index.html ] comprehensive
access via  Iridium
http://www.iridium.com/gateways/neurope/tech/pop_gate.html ] and other
Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) since they are "collective and simple
locations for monitoring solutions."

The demands of the "legally empowered authorities," as they are so
stereotypically called in the Enfopol papers, are listed throughout a total
of forty pages and can relatively easily be summed up with the word
"everything". Beginning with the "Proclamation for the State of
Preparedness", simply "all signals created at the observed facilities" are
to be made accessible as well as all related technical services and data:
the redirecting of telephone calls, conference calls, voice mail and other
forms of telecommunication. Even in-bound and out-bound connections which
are not completed have been taken into consideration. And "legally
empowered authorities" want all of this data immediately. "The data
relevant to connections should be available within milliseconds after the
call is made... in order to allow the collation of the event and the
details of the call." Even though "due to the global topology of the MSS,
...the delivery of the data relevant to the connection is more likely to be
delayed" than is the case with "terrestrially cellular wireless services."

By the time these passages appear in Paragraphs 2 of the Enfopol paper, it
becomes clear that the plans of the European police will not be able to be
realized without serious effecting the topology of the network.

Only with considerable technical effort and expense would it be possible to
make the data in GSM networks, to which the catalog of demands by the
European police are oriented, available in real time. The evaluation of the
transfer protocols of every individual relay station for the purpose of
establishing charges alone for the national GSM operators, which are tiny
in comparison with the Iridium system, would take "around eight hours," as
Klaus Steinmauer of the Austrian MaxMobil remarks.

The point made in the "Introduction to the Topic of the Internet" that
there is already formal governmental approval in the USA, Australia and
Canada for national regulations to meet Enfopol demands underlines a
serious suspicion of the EU on the part of the  STOA Committee
http://www.europarl.eu.int/dg4/stoa/en/default.htm ].

In their controversial  "Appraisal of the Technologies of Political
Control" , Paragraph 7.4.2, the technical committee refers to an  "EU-FBI
Global Telecommunications Surveillance System" which is to be established
under the "third pillar" of the Maastricht Treaty for the cooperation in
the areas of justice and police work.
[ http://www.europarl.eu.int/dg4/stoa/en/publi/166499/execsum.htm#2.4.2 ]

A related "memorandum of understanding" with the file number ENFOPOL 112
10037/95, signed by all the members of the EU, has been kept secret to this
day. The background is the fear of European secret services that the
control over analog satellite communication gained via the military
Echelon system will be lost in the digital age
http://www.freecongress.org/ctp/echelon.html ].

Copyright © 1996-98 Verlag Heinz Heise, Hannover


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Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 11:37:13 -0800
From: "Ama-gi ISPI" <Offshore@email.msn.com>
Subject: About the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues: (ISPI)

[...]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues: (ISPI)

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