Are-IP.com

Question from BOB: In the same way that an ISP can record every website you visit (if you don’t take steps to prevent them), under current U.S. laws, can VOIP providers record conversations (not just phone #s) with OUT some warrant or court order? In other words, can the VOIP provider legally record your voice conversation as a standard business practice, if they choose to do so? I asked this of AT&T’s customer service, but they could give me nothing in writing that addresses this one way or another. Voipguru answer: First about the technical possibilities to record a VOIP call, It is very easy to learn about some ones conversation over VOIP if the RTP streams are not encrypted. You can check this yourself easily by capturing the raw RTP packets using Wireshark and then using the menu item “Statistics->Voip Calls” and select the call you are interested and press the ‘player’ button. Voila there you could hear the whole conversation. Believe me many VOIP implementers were shocked to learn this, when they saw this first time. Next coming to the law, Law with respect to this is also confusing as with any other law. But my understanding is that if the government decides to tap the conversation of any VOIP user then they will go about with it with out any notification. All VOIP providers are mandated to keep a provision to tap the voice when required by the intelligence agencies. They need to provide this facility even if they give a secure VOIP communication solution to their customers. Here is a short extract from wikipedia on the lawful interception with VOIP ... more>>>