{"id":1129,"date":"2010-06-16T04:11:07","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T12:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2010-06-16T06:55:01","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T14:55:01","slug":"title-18-part-ii-chapter-206-%c2%a7-3121","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/?p=1129","title":{"rendered":"Title 18 – Part II – Chapter 206 – \u00a7 3121"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former federal prosecutor Paul Ohm says <\/a>Google \u201clikely\u201d breached a U.S. federal criminal statute in connection with its accidental Wi-Fi sniffing \u2014 but not for siphoning private data from internet surfers using unsecured networks.<\/p>\n

Instead, Mr. Ohm\u00a0 thinks Google might have breached the Pen Register and Trap and Traces Device Act for intercepting the metadata and address information alongside the content.<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia<\/a>,\u00a0a “pen register<\/strong> is an electronic<\/span><\/a> device that records all numbers<\/span><\/a> dialed from a particular telephone<\/span><\/a> line. The term has come to include any device or program that performs similar functions to an original pen register, including programs monitoring Internet<\/span><\/a> communications.”<\/p>\n

I'll expand on the identity implications in my next post,\u00a0but to prepare the discussion, here\u00a0is the statute to which Mr. Ohm is referring:<\/p>\n

Title 18 – Part II – Chapter 206 – \u00a7 3121<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \n
    In General.\u2014 Except as provided in this section, no person may install or use a pen register or a trap and trace device without first obtaining a court order under section 3123 of this title or under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.).<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    Exception.\u2014 The prohibition of subsection (a) does not apply with respect to the use of a pen register or a trap and trace device by a provider of electronic or wire communication service\u2014<\/div>\n
      \n
    1. relating to the operation, maintenance, and testing of a wire or electronic communication service or to the protection of the rights or property of such provider, or to the protection of users of that service from abuse of service or unlawful use of service; or<\/li>\n
    2. to record the fact that a wire or electronic communication was initiated or completed in order to protect such provider, another provider furnishing service toward the completion of the wire communication, or a user of that service, from fraudulent, unlawful or abusive use of service; or<\/li>\n
    3. where the consent of the user of that service has been obtained.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    4. \n
      Limitation.\u2014 A government agency authorized to install and use a pen register or trap and trace device under this chapter or under State law shall use technology reasonably available to it that restricts the recording or decoding of electronic or other impulses to the dialing, routing, addressing, and signaling information utilized in the processing and transmitting of wire or electronic communications so as not to include the contents of any wire or electronic communications.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
    5. \n
      Penalty.\u2014 Whoever knowingly violates subsection (a) shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      \u00a7 3121. General prohibition on pen register and trap and trace device use; exception<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,2,3,47,77],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}