The Wiretap Act (1968)
When an intercept order is called a "Title III," this is the title. It is the general rule that communications are private, and the narrow, court-supervised exception that lawful intercept lives inside.
The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, Title III (the Wiretap Act)
The Wiretap Act protected the privacy of telephone conversations and created various exceptions from the general privacy-protection rule. It states that a criminal court may authorize a law enforcement agency, on a showing of probable cause, to conduct lawful electronic surveillance on a criminal suspect — and it sets the procedure for applying, the findings a judge must make, the duration of an order, minimization, and the notice given afterwards.
ECPA extended it in 1986 from telephone conversations to electronic communications generally. Today a Title III order is the instrument that authorizes real-time interception of content; a pen-register or trap-and-trace order reaches only signaling; and the Stored Communications Act governs records already held.
The parts that matter to a provider.
The rule
Interception of wire, oral or electronic communications is prohibited, with criminal and civil consequences, except as the statute provides.
The exception
A judge may authorize interception for the investigation of enumerated offenses on an application showing probable cause, that normal investigative procedures have been tried and failed or are unlikely to succeed, and that the facilities are being used in connection with the offense.
The provider's role
A provider is directed to furnish the applicant "all information, facilities, and technical assistance necessary to accomplish the interception unobtrusively and with a minimum of interference" — the language CALEA later turned into a capability requirement — and is compensated for reasonable expenses.
Limits
Orders run for no more than 30 days at a time, must minimize the interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception, and are followed by inventory notice to the persons named.
Does this apply to you?
Every communications provider that can be served with an intercept order, and every subscriber whose communications the order names. It is the legal authority behind the content intercepts a CALEA-covered carrier must be able to deliver.
The Wiretap Act, full text
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Other primary documents.
CALEA Act of 1994
What CALEA (1994) requires, section by section — definitions, capability, security, safe harbor, enforcement — with the full text to download.
CALEA Broadband Coverage Order (2005)
The 2005 FCC order that extended CALEA to facilities-based broadband and interconnected VoIP providers — what it decided, why, and what it left open.
CALEA Capability Order (2006)
The 2006 FCC order that set the May 14, 2007 deadline, permitted Trusted Third Parties, required SSI filings and monitoring reports, and settled who pays.
ECPA (1986)
What ECPA did: extended the Wiretap Act to electronic communications and created the Pen Register Act and the Stored Communications Act — the tiers of process.
FISA (1978)
What FISA authorizes — foreign-intelligence surveillance of foreign powers and their agents under the FISA court — and what a FISA order means for a carrier.
USA PATRIOT Act (2001)
What the USA PATRIOT Act changed for communications providers: FISA, the pen-register statute, the Stored Communications Act and emergency disclosure.