An in-flight WiFi provider gives the government more access to information than it has to

[thewayne]

There's an in-flight provider called GoGo. Any telecommunications provider (in the US) has to comply with a law called CALEA, which basically says that they have to assist law enforcement with wiretaps on specific lines when they have search warrants. Turns out that GoGo goes far beyond and above what CALEA requires, and people are not happy.

While I am personally not concerned about this as there's no way that I'd pay the ruinous rates for services like this, and if I did, I'd have a VPN provider contracted to strongly encrypt everything that I do, still, this really sucks.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/04/at-feds-request-gogo-in-flight-wi-fi-service-added-more-spying-capabilities/

According to Wired, GoGo "...provides inflight Wi-Fi and digital entertainment to Delta, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Virgin America, US Airways and others...".

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/gogo-collaboration-feds/

This should only affect flights in US airspace, I have no idea if GoGo operates terrestrial stations anywhere else, if they do, then they'd have to comply with that country's wiretap laws.

Comments

[silveradept]

No matter where you are, the government wants to be sure it can convict you of a crime if it becomes necessary to do so. Seems like ISPs should all be headquartered in places with strong privacy laws and a strong distrust of surveillance.