CTIA Wants More Time to Answer New DoJ Data Demand
The wireless industry is girding for a fight on a DoJ bid to force wireless carriers to provide far more material on data transmissions targeted by law enforcement surveillance. In May, DoJ asked the FCC to launch a rulemaking under which carriers would have to provide significantly more data and certify that the information is reliable (CD May 18 p4).
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FCC sought comment; CTIA sought 30 more days to respond, until July 25, with replies due 30 days later. One wireless industry source said since DoJ had 36 months to decide whether to seek the rulemaking industry deserves more than 30 days to explain why some rule changes could be tough to implement.
“There’s nothing like a deadline to focus attention,” said an industry source: “It certainly has the industry’s attention.” Carriers need time to wade through the issues DoJ raises, the source said: “We have been away from this issue for a long time. This was balloted and approved years ago. A lot of this will take us, legitimately, a little bit of time to get up to speed on the technical nuances.”
To guard the public, DoJ wants more data from carriers -
such as IP addresses, port numbers and transport layer information, plus time stamps. DoJ also wants the FCC to require carriers to keep people being spied on from knowing it and to guarantee intercepts’ “completeness and quality” and reliability.
The wireless industry needs time to “thoroughly analyze DoJ’s petition” and ensure the “accuracy and completeness of the information” submitted in its response, CTIA said. “DoJ makes a number of assertions and presumptions regarding the ‘off-the-shelf’ availability of technical solutions to provide these capabilities, the availability of this information to carriers, the viability of certain features, and costs and technical feasibility,” CTIA said: “To meaningfully respond to these assertions, technical, engineering and procurement personnel drawn from throughout the wireless industry will need to analyze the complex technical and engineering issues raised in the petition, and additional time is warranted.”