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How does CALEA work in the USA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_...)

Does it fail on HTTPS communications or is a similar "rogue" CA that allows law enforcement to decrypt traffic as they need?

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It doesn't really have anything to do with the Internet. CALEA only applies to phone calls. VoIP calls are only encrypted to and from the carrier, so they can tap them there with pre-existing telephony hardware if they have a warrant to do so.

It applies to broadband, in the second paragraph of the wikipedia article: "it has since been extended to cover broadband Internet and VoIP traffic. Some government agencies argue that it covers mass surveillance of communications rather than just tapping specific lines and that not all CALEA-based access requires a warrant."

Oh, wow. Wikipedia's statements are uncited so I kinda ignored it, but a DC court did okay that rule even though the statute says it doesn't apply to the Internet. That is worrying. Still it only allows the police to have switches forward packets to them. It doesn't have any ability to decrypt traffic.

I also know of someone who worked on an implementation of it for an Internet service provider ;)

I don't believe CALEA has any provisions for requiring CA providers to allow decrypt.

Thanks!

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