NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Americans suddenly fearful that the U.S. government can easily find out who they are telephoning have software options to disguise their calling records.
But information specialists say that if the government really wants to get the information, it likely can get it in the end.
Experts say that while there are plenty of services that can make a phone number anonymous, or mask where someone is calling from, the government can still get most of the data it wants with relative ease.
“It’s really hard to feel as if you have complete confidence that you are untraceable,” said Justin Brookman, director of Center for Democracy & Technology’s Project on Consumer Privacy.
If a Skype user had called a Verizon user, for example, the government would see the call was made but not detect the identity of the Skype user, said Fred Cate, an Indiana University professor specializing in information privacy law.
The government could, however, request the IP address from the video and online calling service, he said.
Although there are programs that encrypt the content of phone conversations, Cate said some encrypted data can still tell the government when and to whom calls are made – just not the substance of the call itself.
In the Verizon case, the alleged court order covered each phone number dialed by customers, along with location, routing data, duration and frequency of the calls. Contents of the phone calls were not revealed.
