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Electronic Communications Privacy Act: Addressing Today's Technology, Part II

NCJ Number
110278
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1988) Pages: 26-30
Author(s)
R A Fiatal
Date Published
1988
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article explains provisions of the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) which now require law enforcement officers to obtain extraordinary, or wiretap-type, orders when planning to intercept electronic communications nonconsensually.
Abstract
Under the ECPA, an electronic communication includes any type of communication transmitted by some electronic means, unless it involves the transmission, at least in part, of a human voice, which would then be a wire communication. Such a definition of electronic communication encompasses written messages, documents, and photographs transmitted by telegraph and facsimile-type communications services. It also includes terminal-to-terminal computer messages and numerically coded messages transmitted to digital display paging devices. The ECPA specifies six types of communications not requiring a wiretap-type order for interception. They are publicly accessible radio communications, tracking devices, the radio portion of cordless telephones, tone-only paging devices, and pen registers and trap and trace devices.