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With a single wiretap, police collected 9.2 million text messages – TechCrunch
For four months in 2018, authorities in Texas collected more than 9.2 million messages under a single court-authorized wiretap order, newly released figures show.
The wiretap, granted by a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas, was granted as part of a narcotics investigation and became the federal wiretap with the most intercepts in 2018, according to the government’s annual wiretap report.
Little is known about the case, except that 149 individuals involved in the case were targeted by the wiretap. The wiretap expired last year, allowing the judiciary to disclose the case.
To date, no arrests have been made
Trailing behind it was another narcotics investigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania saw police obtain a three-month wiretap that collected 9.1 million text message from 45 individuals. No arrests were made either.
The two cases represent the largest wiretap cases seen in years.
[...] But the overall number of wiretaps authorized and subsequent convictions “fell sharply” in 2018, the U.S. Courts said in its annual transparency report.
A total of 2,937 wiretaps were authorized in 2018, down 22% on the year prior. The report also said that number of wiretaps using encryption went up, rendering the wiretap ineffective.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich26189 on Tuesday July 02 2019, @02:01PM (3 children)
Just a thought, TFA doesn't give details, what counts as a message? If we're talking about text messages is a single sent text to a single individual count as two messages, one sent and one received? What about a group text, one sent and received by four, is that five message? Does every pressing of the 'send' button bump the count by at least two messages?
Think of a short, text conversation.
Alice: What ya want to do?
Bob: I don't know.
Bob: What do you want to do?
Alice: Go to that new palce to grab a bit to eat
Alice: place
Bob: oj
Bob: ok
Mr. WireTap calls that 14 messages.
Seems like someone wants to inflate the numbers for whatever reason/political purpose.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @02:44PM
You may be correct there, but let's say you go even further and cut the messages by ten. So only 1/10 is relevant, the rest is bullshit. That's still one very big wiretap on many people and it resulted in absolutely nothing. That probably means it was a phishing expedition instead of a targeted wiretap.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 02 2019, @03:24PM (1 child)
Fixing spelling on SMS? Really now, why would you do that?
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Tuesday July 02 2019, @07:47PM
I do it. Fixing my spelling is almost always fixing the wrong word and can change the meaning. Swype sometimes guesses wrong and I don't catch it until after send.