I co-authored an article on the ease of which cellular can be spoofed,
COMINT'd and SIGINT'd in the November issue of PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS
TECHNOLOGY.  An on-line copy of the article may be FTP'd with 'anonymous'
login from [SRI-CSL]

 Re: RISKS-3.8
Dan Franklin 
Fri, 20 Jun 86 14:38:35 EDT
> Does anyone have any idea how the last part (radio telephones) could be
> legally supported in view of other legal freedoms?  I thought that one
> was free to listen to any frequency one wished in the US (Canada too).
> You don't have to trespass to receive radio signals.

Receive them, yes; tell anyone else what you heard, no.  As I understand
the law, if a radio signal is part of a conversation--that is, clearly
directed at some specific other person--you are forbidden to divulge the
contents of that signal to a third party.  You might be forbidden to make
any other use of it, too; I don't remember for certain.

So eavesdropping is already suspect in current law, and it would not be
such a big change to say, for instance, that you could not *intentionally*
receive radiotelephone signals.  If your neighbor's radiotelephone
happened to come in on your stereo, you wouldn't then be breaking the law.
I do not actually know what the new law says, but there do exist ways to
safeguard privacy without compromising the "right to receive".

    Dan Franklin



 Privacy legislation (RISKS-3.6)

Tue, 17 Jun 1986 00:32 EDT
   [On the same topic...]

Not true.  States routinely ban the use of radar detectors, and that
is nothing more than "listening to a frequency."  

   [Well, things seem to be changing.  In California, PASSIVE detectors
    are now legal, and can be bought at Radio Shack among others.  Mail
    order outfits are also doing a boom business.  I presume this is true
    in other states as well.  ACTIVE JAMMERS are of course still illegal.
    [[This messasge does not constitute an endorsement on the advisability
      of using a detector, or of the reliability of any such product.  I
      won't even contemplate the risks involved of using one.]]  PGN]




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