Wiretapping is illegal in the US unless done by law enforcement with a warrant. Induction coils or bugs can be used to tap a phone line, but VOIP technology is more secure. President Bush authorized warrantless wiretapping after 9/11, causing controversy and legal challenges.
Wiretapping is a process in which a third party listens in on a conversation between two people, for the purpose of spying. In the United States, wiretapping is an invasion of privacy and illegal unless the wiretapper is a warranted member of law enforcement. The terminology originates from the old days, when eavesdroppers actually sucked the electrical current from a telephone line and transformed it into speech patterns. Nowadays, there are a variety of other methods to get the job done. If you happen to work for the CIA or another licensed law enforcement agency, a court-ordered warrant is all you need to have the appropriate phone company send you call records to or from a particular phone number.
Illegal wiretapping requires direct access to the relevant line using an induction coil to pick up the signal or the installation of a hidden recording device or “bug” to monitor the target. Since it is extremely difficult to locate a specific caller when the telephone line begins to merge with the lines of other callers, the line must be tapped near the house or apartment of the person to be monitored. A good induction coil can be placed next to a line and measure the signal without disturbing it in any way. Less skilled attempts to tap the line cause obvious cracking or popping from electromagnetic interference reaching the line. The downside to this approach is that it also requires an external recorder, such as a tape recorder, which can be large, loud, and power hungry.
Electronic bugs are perhaps the most effective way of eavesdropping and can use power directly from the telephone line to transmit a radio signal over a distance of several kilometers. Improvements in miniaturization technology allow bugs to be very small and efficient. To avoid eavesdropping attempts almost entirely, one can simply use Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) technology, which sends voice files as a series of packets over the Internet. Intercepting this type of communications requires an entirely different kind of skill than conventional wiretapping.
After the September 9 attacks, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to wiretap thousands of US citizens suspected of communicating with terrorists abroad, without a warrant. This has led to all kinds of political troubles, with many legal experts saying the president broke the law and violated the Constitution, a charge the administration denies. In any case, Bush’s wiretaps probably contributed to his public approval ratings falling to historic lows.
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