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What about them? (Can you send a fax over those media, and are they protected similarly?) Or are you asking a different question? If it's not on a phone line,

by yebyen 8y ago

What about them? (Can you send a fax over those media, and are they protected similarly?) Or are you asking a different question? If it's not on a phone line, then it's not afforded those legal protections. None of those communication media you just mentioned are using a phone line as a transport mechanism. (They're also not similar to fax from a UX standpoint.)

gruez 8y ago
>Or are you asking a different question? I was asking whether those protections applied to only landlines, or all telephone conversations (eg. cellphones). >If it's not on a phone line, then it's not afforded those legal protections. This sounds problematic considering that for PSTN, "phone lines" only cover the last few miles of transport[1]. Does that mean you can't tap outside someone's house (where it's a phone line), but you could tap outside the CO, where it's fiber or even public internet? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_switched_telephone_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_switched_telephone_netw...
- yebyen 8y ago
  I think that was exactly the story behind Room 641a, wasn't it? (And it was illegal, although now, in the USA, I don't think it would be anymore.) Largely depends on what TLA you are, and whether or which secret court you derive your authority from / are required to report to for renewal of your secret warrant. Of course the GP was about doctors in Germany, and this 641a business was about an NSA facility operated on an AT&T switching office in San Francisco, USA (so this does not also preclude that.) I think based on what I know about Germany and privacy laws, the court would use a favorable liberal interpretation of "phone line" to mean, say, any connection that begins and ends with a phone line, and terminates with a dial-tone. I don't know much about German courts though, so take that only for what it's worth.

by yebyen 8y ago

gruez 8y ago

>Or are you asking a different question? I was asking whether those protections applied to only landlines, or all telephone conversations (eg. cellphones). >If it's not on a phone line, then it's not afforded those legal protections. This sounds problematic considering that for PSTN, "phone lines" only cover the last few miles of transport[1]. Does that mean you can't tap outside someone's house (where it's a phone line), but you could tap outside the CO, where it's fiber or even public internet? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_switched_telephone_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_switched_telephone_netw...

yebyen 8y ago
I think that was exactly the story behind Room 641a, wasn't it? (And it was illegal, although now, in the USA, I don't think it would be anymore.) Largely depends on what TLA you are, and whether or which secret court you derive your authority from / are required to report to for renewal of your secret warrant. Of course the GP was about doctors in Germany, and this 641a business was about an NSA facility operated on an AT&T switching office in San Francisco, USA (so this does not also preclude that.) I think based on what I know about Germany and privacy laws, the court would use a favorable liberal interpretation of "phone line" to mean, say, any connection that begins and ends with a phone line, and terminates with a dial-tone. I don't know much about German courts though, so take that only for what it's worth.