Wiretapping

Wiretapping (도·감청/盜·監聽) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. Historically, the monitoring connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line, giving birth to the name, telephone tapping, wire tapping or wiretapping.

Legal wiretapping by a government agency is also called lawful interception. Passive wiretapping monitors or records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it.

Legal status
Lawful interception is officially strictly controlled in many countries to safeguard privacy. In theory, telephone tapping often needs to be authorized by a court, and is, again in theory, normally only approved when evidence shows it is not possible to detect criminal or subversive activity in less intrusive ways; often the law and regulations require that the crime investigated must be at least of a certain severity.

Illegal or unauthorized telephone tapping is often a criminal offense. However, in certain jurisdictions such as Germany, courts will accept illegally recorded phone calls without the other party's consent as evidence, but the unauthorized telephone tapping will be prosecuted also.

Telephone call recording
Under the law of the United States and most state laws, there is nothing illegal about one of the parties to a telephone call recording the conversation, or giving permission for calls to be recorded or permitting their telephone line to be tapped. However the telephone recording laws in most U.S. states require only one party to be aware of the recording, while 12 states require both parties to be aware. It is considered better practice to announce at the beginning of a call that the conversation is being recorded.

Rule of Law
국가기관이 합법적으로 감청을 하려면 1993년 12월 법률 제4650호로 제정되고 1994년 6월부터 시행되 통신비밀보호법에 따라 법원의 영장이 있어야 한다. 이 법이 시행되기 전 수사기관에서 이루어지던 도청을 엄격히 금지할 목적으로 도입된 제도로, 수사상 꼭 필요할 때에 한해 제한적으로 피의자 등의 통화내용을 엿들을 수 있게 한 것이다.

그러므로 누구나 통신비밀보호법·형사소송법 또는 군사법원법의 규정에 의하지 않고는 감청을 할 수 없다. 통신비밀보호법상 범죄 수사를 위한 감청이 허용되는 경우는 범죄를 계획 또는 실행하고 있거나, 실행하였다고 의심할 만한 충분한 이유가 있고, 다른 방법으로는 그 범죄의 실행을 저지하거나 범인의 체포 또는 증거의 수집이 어려운 경우에 한한다.

세목별로는 내란죄, 외환죄, 국교에 관한 죄, 공안을 해하는 죄, 폭발물에 관한 죄, 공무원의 직무에 관한 죄, 도주와 범인은닉죄, 방화와 실화의 죄 일부, 일수와 수리에 관한 죄 일부, 교통방해죄 일부, 음용수에 관한 죄, 아편에 관한 죄, 통화에 관한 죄, 유가증권·우표와 인지에 관한 죄, 살인죄, 체포와 감금의 죄, 협박죄, 약취와 유인죄, 강간과 추행죄, 권리행사 방해죄, 절도와 강도죄, 사기와 공갈죄 일부 등이다.

군형법 가운데는 반란죄, 이적죄, 지휘권 남용죄, 지휘관의 항복과 도피죄, 주소이탈죄, 군무태만죄 일부, 항명죄, 폭행·협박·상해와 살인죄, 군용물에 관한 죄, 위령의 죄 일부 등이 이에 해당한다.

그 밖에 국가보안법·군사기밀보호법·군사시설보호법·마약법·향정신성의약품관리법·대마관리법과 특정범죄가중처벌 등에 관한 법률에 규정된 범죄에 한해 감청영장이 허용된다. [출처] 감청영장 | 두산백과

Current situation in Korea
Critics say that, in spite of privacy protection legislation, there are few provisions to prevent excessive collection of information by public agencies. In addition, there are overall exceptions to the application of this Act with regard to agencies like the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and other law enforcement bodies. Until September 30, 2011 when a new Personal Information Protection Act came into force, there was no guarantee of independence of the oversight body in the Administration Ministry and the Personal Information Protection Deliberation Committee (PICO) under the Prime Minister.

Surprisingly, it was disclosed in early 2005 that NIS, a Korean CIA, had collected personal information without court permission. According to news reports, NIS secretly eavesdropped on conversations of 1800 politicians, journalists, government officials and businessmen in a 24-hour-a-day operation during the period from 1998 to 2003. Public opinion demanded a special prosecutor to investigate the case. As a result, the former heads of the nation’s intelligence agency were arrested in November 2005, and sentenced for illegal iretapping.

However, the government’s illegal wiretapping of civilians, politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and journalists has not stopped. It was reported that the public ethics office of the Prime Minister’s Office had been keeping tabs on a wide range of people. Suddenly 2,619 documents were disclosed by unionized workers at public broadcaster KBS and the opposition Democratic United Party to the public. They insisted that such illegal work was conducted by the Lee Myung-bak government.

The arguments over the government's illegal wiretapping of civilians would require an in-depth investigation. The ruling Saenuri Party is demanding that a special prosecution team be organized, but the DUP has refused to consent to this, after it earlier claimed it cannot trust the impartiality of the prosecution. Now the main opposition camp is calling for a parliamentary hearing and insisting that the key politician of the Saenuri Party, who is also said to have been a victim of wiretapping, be called to the witness stand.