larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) (05/11/86)
In article <1993@hammer.UUCP>, hutch@hammer.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) writes: >> >> There may well be good reasons for the operator/telephone engineer to >> overhear (part of) a telephone conversation (although I can't think of >> one now!). They may have to listen in to ensure the correct functioning of >> the telephone system (no?). > > About six years ago I worked for a company in California called > "Badger Meter Electronics Division" which, among other remote control > machinery, built/builds telephone test equipment. > > The test consoles which were once widely used by telco operators who > were running tests on the integrity of the phone lines, all incorporated > a randomizing filter which reduced speech to a pattern of buzzing and > clicking. It was recognizable as speech if you knew what it sounded like > but wasn't understandable at all. The phone companies required that this > filter be added because of some government regs about phone-tapping. Actually, an operating telephone company or communication common carrier has a legal right to listen to conversations for certain purposes, such as: (1) placement and "supervision" of an operator-assisted telephone call; (2) during repair and maintenance functions on communication circuits; and (3) for "service observing" purposes, which is a quality-control function. It is, however, UNLAWFUL for an employee of a telephone company or communication common carier to disclose the nature of such intercepted communications to a third party. Under New York State law, it has been held that the above types of interception result from "normal operation" of a telephone company, and are therefore exempt from violating the eavesdropping statues under Article 250 of the NY Penal Law. Implicit permission for interception of conversations for the above purposes by a telephone company or communication common carrier is in fact conveyed by federal law. I quote from the United States Code, Title 18, Section 2511: (2) (a) (i) "It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for an operator of a switchboard, or an officer, employee, or agent of any communication common carrier, whose facilities are used in the transmission of a wire communication, to intercept, disclose, or use that communication in the normal course of his employment while engaged in any activity which is a necessary incident to the rendition of his service or to the protection of the rights or property of the carrier of such communication: PROVIDED, That said communication carriers shall not utilize service observing or random monitoring except for mechanical or service quality control checks." There is no legal requirement that speech be "encoded" so that a telephone company operator cannot understand the conversation. However, such a feature is desired by management of telephone companies to preclude any liability incurred by employees "misusing" verification and test facilities. One of the most deeply guarded secrets of the larger telephone companies (like the BOC's) is the extent to which service observing is carried out. There are legitimate reasons why service observing is required, such as: (1) transmission quality appraisal; (2) human factors analysis (i.e., dialing time, ringing time, etc.); (3) traffic analysis; etc. It is my understanding that telephone companies do take some steps to conceal the subscriber line identity from the service observing personnel. However, the point to remember is that ANY direct-dialed telephone call CAN be LEGALLY monitored by a telephone company or communication common carrier. My personal opinion - in case anyone cares - is that the above type of monitoring as conducted by a telephone company or communication common carrier is a normal fact of life. No one should get bent out of shape over it, since there is NO WAY to enforce absolute privacy in a telephone call - unless someone wishes to employ digital speech encoding. ==> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, New York ==> UUCP {decvax|dual|rocksanne|rocksvax|watmath}!sunybcs!kitty!larry ==> VOICE 716/688-1231 {rice|shell}!baylor!/ ==> FAX 716/741-9635 {G1, G2, G3 modes} seismo!/ ==> "Have you hugged your cat today?" ihnp4!/