IRS Cups It's Ear to Cordless Phones

by Eric J Werme

IRS CUPS ITS EAR TO CORDLESS PHONES (USA Today, 7/30?)

If you're thinking about declaring a few imaginary dependents this year, don't mention it on your cordless phone.

The Internal Revenue Service may be listening.

Under new guidelines for its criminal investigators, the IRA can use radio scanners to eavesdrop on suspected tax dodgers while they chat on their cordless phones.

No warrant is necessary.

The IRS policy, issued as an update to a handbook for investigators, comes in the wake of a recent Supreme Court action.

The high court declined in January to review a federal appeals court ruling that conversations on cordless telephones are not subject to federal privacy laws.

"The IRS thinks that since there are no legal or constitutional protections against listening in to cordless telephone conversations, its agents aren't bound by any higher principles," says Janlori Goldman of the American Civil Liberties Union's Privacy Project.

As of this year, one in four homes has a cordless phone; more than 9 million were sold last year alone.

The ACLU has asked Congress to overhaul the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which extended federal privacy protection to such areas as cellular telephones and electronic computer mail - but specifically omitted the emerging technology of cordless phones.

"The current law makes no sense," says Goldman. "If your telephone happens to have a cord, your privacy is protected by federal law. If not, you have none."

Eric J Werme