A coalition of colleges and universities, of which Georgetown is a member, is protesting a government order requiring major changes to university Internet networks to facilitate law enforcement agencies’ ability to monitor online communication.
The order, issued by the Federal Communications Commission in August, extends a 1994 wiretap law – the Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA – to various institutions that provide widespread Internet access, including commercial Internet providers, libraries, airports and universities.
Currently, law enforcement officials with court permission can monitor students’ Internet communications by working with a university. The FCC’s new order requires colleges to install more advanced technology that will permit law enforcement themselves to monitor Internet communications from off-campus locations.
Universities have until Nov. 14 to file public comments seeking exemption from CALEA. College administrators argue that the FCC order would be a major administrative and financial burden.
“These changes require staggering new equipment purchases,” university spokesperson Julie Bataille said.
Georgetown University, is part of the American Council on Education, the largest association of American colleges and universities. The ACE estimates that it would cost approximately $7 billion for universities nationwide to purchase the Internet switches and routers necessary to update their computer networks in compliance with the order.
The ACE filed a lawsuit appealing the regulations on Oct. 24, Bataille said.
Educause, a non-profit association of universities, is also preparing for a legal challenge to the FCC in coming months.
Bataille said Georgetown does not plan to challenge the FCC order directly.
“Georgetown will continue to monitor this issue and work through our member associations to address our concerns,” she said. “We do not plan to take a position independent of them and do not have an assessment of exactly what the financial implications would be for us, as the technical requirements remain unclear.”
The FCC argues that the modifications to Internet networks at universities are necessary for national security purposes.
“Responding to the needs of law enforcement is of paramount importance,” FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said in an August statement. “It is critical to our nation’s security that . Internet access providers have CALEA obligations.”
Universities are required to comply with the order by May 2007, but the FCC is currently considering exempting educational institutions, said Mark Wigfield, spokesman for the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau.
Wigfield said that the rule, if implemented, would apply only to connections between individual users and the external Internet, not the university’s own network systems.
“A university doesn’t have to do anything in terms of the intranet on campus,” Wigfield said. “Where they need to accommodate wire taps is the line that connects the intranet to the Internet, the external line.”
Wigfield added that officials from the U.S. Justice Department prompted the FCC to issue the order to “make sure law enforcement could still perform a wire tap as technology went digital.”
Government Department Professor Clyde Wilcox said that the main problem with the new regulations is funding.
“Certainly this is not a good time for universities to absorb the cost,” Wilcox said. “Tuition is already far too high for many families to afford, and there are limits to how universities can get more funds without raising tuition.”
Other objections lodged against the FCC order have criticized its implications for privacy rights on university campuses.
The Center for Democracy and Technology, a District-based civil liberties organization opposing the FCC’s order, said in a press statement Tuesday that using CALEA to justify Internet monitoring “threatens the privacy rights of individuals who use the Internet and other new communications technologies.”
“We’re deeply concerned that extending a law written specifically for the public telephone network to these emerging technologies will stifle the sort of innovation that has been the hallmark of the Internet revolution,” John Morris, staff counsel for the center, said in the statement.
