How often does a telecom need to install a wiretap under FISA? Often enough that Comcast has a set fee.
Although the scope of surveillance conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act remains shrouded in secrecy, newly disclosed documents show the costs one company charges the government to eavesdrop on customers.
Comcast, which is among the nation’s largest telecommunication companies, charges $1,000 to install a FISA wiretap and $750 for each additional month authorities want to keep an eye on suspects, according to the company’s Handbook for Law Enforcement. Secrecy News obtained the document and published it Monday.
“I was actually surprised that this was such a routine transaction that it would have a set fee,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy.
Talk about a capitalists wet-dream. Comcast (and possibly other telecoms) has found a way to profit from wiretapping.
If you look at the actual Comcast document, it says that fee schedule applies to all court ordered wiretaps where Comcast has to deploy an intercept device on their network.
There are hundreds, maybe thousands of law enforcement agencies that conduct investigations. Many of them occasionally obtain surveillance orders — not just the FBI. And the FBI’s aren’t necessarily FISA orders.
There’s no evidence in that handbook that says Comcast has ever received a FISA order. It just says that they’re going to treat FISA orders like other wiretap orders if the get them, and that rather than eat the cost of implementing the order entirely, they’re going to recoup some of the cost from the people who want the information.
Liza, ultimately, it is the taxpayers that are paying those fees.