Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994

Congress passed the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act ("CALEA", also commonly known as the Digital Telephony Act) to preserve the Government's ability, pursuant to court order or other lawful authorization, to intercept communications over digital networks. The Act requires phone companies to modify their networks to ensure government access to all wire and electronic communications as well as to call identifying information. Privacy advocates were able to remove provisions from earlier drafts of the legislation that would have required on-line service providers to modify their equipment to ensure government access. The law also included several provisions enhancing privacy, including a section that increased the standard for government access to transactional data.