| ▲ | Animats 6 hours ago | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
It's worth realizing that, before computerized central offices, telephone wiretapping required running physical wires. Back when Rudi Giuliani was prosecuting organized time, not only did physical wires have to be run, the cops were billed for them as expensive private lines. His task force was spending about a million dollars a year with New York Telephone on wiretapping. In one case, law enforcement didn't pay their bill, resulting in the person being wiretapped having the wiretap connection show up on their bill, blowing the case. That resulted in the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, which mandated that central offices offer remote wiretapping. Capacity up to 1% of lines is required. Back in the electromechanical era, the only call data that could be collected was outgoing dial pulses, using a "pen register".[1] (The one shown in Wikipedia is mine. It's a beautiful piece of antique brass telegraph technology. It records dial pulses as dashes, and has to be wound up like a clock, with a big brass key.) The Supreme Court decision allowing "pen registers" without a warrant refers to these "extremely limited" devices. That definition has been stretched and stretched by law enforcement into all non-voice data collected by telcos. Law enforcement still wants more. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | dylan604 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> In one case, law enforcement didn't pay their bill, resulting in the person being wiretapped having the wiretap connection show up on their bill, blowing the case. In the fictional world of The Wire, one of the "wires" were blown when the guy checked on his mobile bill to find out his account was flagged to not be disconnected. I'm sure this was art imitating life or inspired by type of thing | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | leeoniya 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> The one shown in Wikipedia is mine. neat! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Pen_Regi... assuming you still have it, it wouldn't be the worst idea to update the pic to something without chromatic aberration and motion blur. the wiki pic is probably the worst of the bunch compared to others on google image search :) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | downrightmike 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Back when Rudi Giuliani was prosecuting organized time" I can't even fathom he'd not be cashing checks from the mafia to go after other families. Odds are good that historians will find that he did. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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