TRE PRIV6rE E6R It has recently come to our attention that a new device f~or invadlng your prlvacy is an the market. Called the Telecommand, thls de~lce ls only an extension of what was forrnerly available to law enf~orcement officers. The Telecommand attaches to your phone internally, and whenever they want to bug your pad, they Just call up and send a tone loto thelr phone before they dial the last digit of your nwnber. This automatically plCka up your phone bef~ore it rings. Nc~w your phone, whlch looks llke itB JUBt Blttin~ there hung up, is rea lly 11 ve and listenlng to everythin~ goln'g on wlthin earehot . When he's heard enaugh, he simply hanc,s up and your phone ie back to normal. Recently, Screw magazlne revealed that Nassau C~unty D.A. Cahn had purchased several thausands of dollars worth of surYeillance equtptment, including the te lecommand . And this will probably be f.ollowed by police departnents all aver the c~untry. I don't think I have to explain in detall Just h~w fucked up lt is f~r a D.A. to eaveadrop ~n the c~unty he 1s supposed to be servin,~. ~t ' ~ worse, the equiptment is pald for by c~unty taxes, 'Just as Federal taxes pay for the F.B.I. 's versions of the same shit. It should be realized, h~wever, that the Telecommand is anly a remote-contro1 extension of what the Telephone Company has been using for years. Previc~'y, the police or F.B.I. had to listen from inside the Telephone Cornpany ut.~ln3. Now they can listen from the pay bo~th across the street. The results are fri~htenin=. They can wait for ,just the rl~ht m~ment t ~ break d~wn the do~r and c~tch you sm~kin~ pot, for example. It i~ be lieved, furtherrnore, tbat c omputertzed networks for tapping are beinO set up across the c~un`. . Thie would mean J. Ed,ar himeelf could strnply dial out your number form his office and the tap would autornatically be act- ivated . And ~f you don't think that they have the capabllity to monltor thousands of pe~ple at the same t~me, ,Just remernber that in a wh~le year, your cu;nuLative tatal of phvne time is probably anly a few hours. Tapes stored for [uture reference couLd be quick~y scanned for lncrtminatina statemente. Clicks are anly a sign of an amateur tap. Do not ever assume that your phone is safe, even for a m~ment . And if you dontt believe it- Arthur S. BrewQter is division security superv sor for the Southwestern Be ll Teleohone Company, assi ,ned to .the Kansas City offlce. He is a lawyer and since 1ø50 has had the responsitility, a~on~ other thin,~) of assurin., pri- vacy of the hundrebs of thousands of subsccibers -to the company's service. Brewster'~ relationship with the FBI was a close ~ne; when the Lon~, commit- tee subpoenaed hlm to testify, he notified the FBI's Kansas City office. Senator Lon_: Do your employees ever =o with the FBI men when they were ,u ised a s te leph^ne emp I~yee s ? ;Ir. Brewster: I will ,~ut it thiC way. I tnin.c ti~ere were some bure.au men -~ho went with the te lephone c^mpany oe~ple. The~i hac3 on old cl~thes and those thln-;s.... Senator E'_n-r; I)o yOu do this f_r prlvate detect ives ? ,1r. Brewster: ;i~, sir. Senator Lon ;: ',hy not ~ It ~ s a ~,ubl Ec serv ice . Mr. Brewster: I would hsve t_ t;ave a lot of. exp Lanat lon.... " I should like to ask the Senator from Utah wLether the te lephone company has of~fered him the kind of. proposal that it has offered me ? - ~1 ~i