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List:       dmca-discuss
Subject:    [DMCA_Discuss] Court limits in-car FBI spying
From:       "Jon O." <jono () microshaft ! org>
Date:       2003-11-20 22:29:28
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34100.html

An appeals court this week put the brakes on an FBI surveillance technique that turns \
an automobile driver's on-board vehicle navigation system into a covert eavesdropping \
device, after finding that the spying effectively disables the system's emergency and \
roadside assistance features.

The case arose from a 2001 FBI surveillance operation in Las Vegas, in which agents \
obtained a court order compelling a telematics company to secretly activate the \
stolen vehicle recovery feature in a customer's car. The feature, designed to \
listen-in on car thieves as they cruise around in a stolen auto, turns on a dashboard \
microphone and pipes conversations out over a cellphone connection -- normally to the \
company's response center, but in this case to an FBI listening post.

After initially complying for 30 days, the company asked a federal judge to block the \
order. It lost, and filed the appeal with 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while \
complying with the order. The proceeding were handled in strict secrecy, and the text \
of the final ruling omits the name of the company. Geri Lama, a spokesperson for \
General Motors subsidiary OnStar, says it wasn't them.

Court records strongly point to OnStar's Texas-based competitor ATX Technologies, \
which makes the "Tele Aid" systems used in Mercedes vehicles: the description fits \
the Tele Aid systems, and the Dallas-based attorney listed as arguing the appeal is \
also representing ATX in unrelated civil litigation in Texas. ATX spokesman Gary \
Wallace said he couldn't immediately comment.

Emergency Services Blocked

Under federal law, the FBI can obtain court orders compelling telecommunications \
companies, ISPs, landlords and others to assist the Bureau in spying on customers. \
But the law requires that surveillance in such cases be conducted "unobtrusively and \
with a minimum of interference with the services" provided by the company. With the \
navigation system's cellular link dedicated full time to eavesdropping, the system \
had no way to communicate with the company's response center if the roadside \
assistance or emergency reporting features were activated, according to the court's \
split 2-1 decision.

"Pressing the emergency button and activation of the car's airbags, instead of \
automatically contacting the Company, would simply emit a tone over the already open \
phone line," the majority wrote. "[T]he FBI, however well-intentioned, is not in the \
business of providing emergency road services, and might well have better things to \
do when listening in than respond with such services... The result was that the \
Company could no longer supply any of the various services it had promised its \
customer, including assurance of response in an emergency."

The decision, released Tuesday, is only binding in the 9th Circuit, which covers \
eight western U.S. states and Hawaii. Other federal circuits have not addressed the \
issue.

Despite the reversal, David Sobel, an attorney with the Electronic Privacy \
Information Center, says the ruling is not a victory for privacy. "Although the \
bottom line is that the surveillance order was rejected, the real effect of it is \
that this kind of monitoring is permissible as long it does not interfere with the \
service," says Sobel. "It underscores the fact that it's becoming increasingly \
difficult to escape the reach of surveillance capabilities." \
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