Geoff@SRI-CSL.ARPA ("the tty of Geoffrey S. Goodfellow") (02/17/86)
CommunicationsWeek -- Monday, February 10, 1986 -- Page 9. By Karen Lynch WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is expected to drop its opposition to legislation protecting the privacy of new communications technologies against unauthorized interception, congressional sources said last week. Congressional and industry representatives have been meeting with Justice Department officials to counter what they had characterized as the departments misunderstanding of some parts of the bill. The meetings have also been used to redraft portions of the legislation to alleviate some of the departments concerns, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said last week. Leahy is sponsoring an electronic communications privacy bill in the Senate, and Rep. Robert W. Kastenmeier, D-Wis., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the Administration of Justice, has an identical bill pending in the House. Both bills would protect cellular radio, electronic mail, private networks and other transmission systems and services not now covered by the federal wiretap law. The bills would prohibits the FBI from accessing such communications without court orders, and the measures would assign penalties to private citizens unlawfully interception transmissions. Last November, James Knapp, deputy assistant attorney general of Justice's Criminal Division, charged that the legislations could "unnecessarily complicate procedures" without enhancing individuals' rights of privacy. Now, however, "Justice is beginning to approach it more and more with a non-idealogical bent," Leahy said. "I think they'll sign off." Attorney General Edmund Meese has given the go-ahead for the Justice Department to support the legislation if some modifications are made, said David W. Beier III, counsel to the subcommittee Kastenmeier chairs. The industry has shown willingness to make some of those changes, said Philip Walker, general counsel, regulatory affairs, for GTE Telenet Communications Inc. One of the department's concerns has been the high level of protection the bill gives data from government access before and after transmission, he said. Kastenmeier's subcommittee will host the department at a hearing at the end of the month, and the subcommittee will vote to send the bill to the House floor. "It would be an absolute shame if we couldn't put it through this year," Leahy said, calling his bill "one of the least controversial" in Congress. Leahy warned, however, that the bill would have to be moved by this summer. Otherwise, debate over taxes and the budget, along with this year's national elections, could bump the communications privacy measures to next year. Senate Subcommittee on Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks counsel John Podesta said it is unclear whether the communications privacy bill would move separately or along with a computer crime bill also pending in Congress. GTE's Walker said the customers are expressing increasing concern about the security of their electronic mail transmissions. Still, lack of security has not proven a deterrent to the business, he said during a press briefing his company held on the privacy bills.