International Service FAQs
GENERAL
Q: Subsentio, the CALEA Compliance Company®, is going international. What services are you offering exactly?
Subsentio is a trusted third party (“TTP”) that offers international clients two services. The first is our lawful intercept (“LI”) service. Our LI service enables communication service providers (“CSPs”) to comply with statutory mandates to implement orders for lawful electronic surveillance. The second is our records production (“RP”) service, known in other countries as “data retention.” This service helps clients respond to lawful requests for stored communication records, such as subscriber billing records.
Q: What need are you fulfilling for your customers?
CSPs must comply with a range of regulatory mandates. When it comes to LI and RP mandates, many lack the esoteric technical and legal expertise needed to reach the compliance goal posts. That’s where Subsentio comes in. We have advanced expertise in both the technical and legal realms, plus many years of successful experience.
Q: What makes this service a first?
In many countries, Subsentio is the first TTP to enter the market. Our entry gives CSPs a choice in deciding how to comply with their public safety mandates. They can try to “go it alone.” Or they can cost-effectively outsource the job to us.
Q: What types of customers will you support — US communications service providers doing business in Europe, or European CSPs, or both?
We are positioned to support both types of CSP: those based in the US and serving markets in Europe; and those based in Europe and serving the US. In addition, we can work our magic in virtually any other country. LI and RP mandates are similar from one country to the next.
Q: Is Subsentio currently providing international service to any of its clients?
We currently serve two large international CSPs, and we have been asked to prepare proposals for ten more.
LEGAL
Q: The scope of your new service is Europe. What are the exact nations where your service will be available?
The initial EU nations are the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, but our customer’s expansion plans will quickly cover most of the EU by the end of 2017
Q: When conducting a lawful intercept on a client’s network in Europe, what laws apply — just the U.S. CALEA or European laws?
Each EU member state enforces its own CALEA-like LI statute. CALEA itself applies only in the US.
Q: In Europe, does lawful intercept fall under the domain of the EU or the laws of 28 different nations that belong to the EU?
LI falls under the laws of each EU nation. However, certain privacy protection laws adopted by the EU cover all EU nations.
Q: Certain European nations such as the UK (under the new Investigatory Powers Acts) extend the purview of lawful intercept to social media. Will Subsentio be tracking social media in the UK or other similar nations when requested?
So far the UK is the only EU state that has adopted a statute requiring CSPs to include social media information in their lawful intercepts, and that law is not yet settled. However, if and when a UK-based client asks us to start including social media data in lawful intercepts, we could develop the needed capability in a future release of one of our LI solutions.
Q: Does Subsentio’s new international service cover lawful intercept of communications traffic originating on clients’ networks in countries outside the U.S.?
Yes. Whether a suspect’s communication traffic originates on a foreign network or a US network, Subsentio can arrange to intercept it lawfully.
Q: Will this service cut both ways, i.e., allow law enforcement in other countries to use Subsentio’s service for lawful intercept on client networks in those countries?
Yes. A foreign law enforcement agency will be able to serve a lawful order on a client network in the foreign country and receive the output of a lawful intercept, just as if the client had performed the task through internal resources.
TECHNICAL
Q: Are there any special/different technical issues in providing Subsentio’s international service vs. its usual Trusted Third Party service in the U.S.?
Yes. As noted above, each country imposes its own LI requirements. Some governments may require more technical capabilities or different capabilities than others. Also, different authorities specify different “handover interfaces.” A handover interface guides the CSP delivery format that must be used to transmit the intercepted data to the authorized law enforcement monitoring point.
Q: Will Subsentio be providing technical support in other countries?
Yes. Most technical support can be provided remotely. In a highly unusual situation where a Subsentio engineer must travel to the client’s premises, we will provide the needed on-site support.
Q: Is Subsentio prepared to support EU handover standards for lawful intercepts?
Yes. Subsentio will observe the ETSI standards for our LI service in Europe and continue using our CALEA solutions in the US.
Q: Subsentio has been active in promoting its cloud-based and virtual services. How far along is Europe in that arena, and do you expect significant demand for cloud-based and virtual lawful intercept services?
Cloud-based LI services are relatively new. We have not yet seen public information on their prevalence in Europe. However, we do expect significant demand for our cloud-based, or “virtual” LI solutions because they can facilitate direct access to network elements hosted in a cloud environment. In addition, cloud-based LI services can be more cost-effective than traditional LI solutions and are more adaptable to upgrades.