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According to media reports of documents leaked by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is capable of running a virtual wiretap on magicJack and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communications.
The NSA has admitted that it collects information about telephone calls originating from outside the U.S., although the agency denies that it actively monitors the content of the calls. Critics of the NSA, which has lately been called the National Spy Agency, point to ongoing media releases of material leaked by Snowden and the PRISM Collection Details PowerPoint slide that indicate voice and video being collected from VoIP providers such as Skype and the lesser-known PalTalk.
MagicJack devices are among the most popular Internet telephony products used by North American expats and tourists in Costa Rica. Sales of magicJack USB devices began in 2007 in the United States at a time when VoIP was beginning to emerge as a clear and affordable alternative to landline residential telephone services. A couple of years following its launch, the magicJack was a favorite among people from Canada and the United States who either traveled or lived in other countries.
Unlimited calls to the United States and Canada, a very reasonable annual subscription and ease of use are the major factors that attract expats and Ticos with ties to the United States and Canada to use magicJack. In the past, some downtown bars around the Gringo Gulch area in downtown San Jose installed a magicJack device to offer patrons free calls to their countries of origin. Some hotels also featured magicJacks as an extra convenience to guests, and many Internet cafes in Costa Rica use the technology to offer international calls to their customers.
In 2010, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) was able to trace harassing telephone calls made to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a magicJack user in San Francisco. VoIP providers in the U.S. are required to comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which means that magicJack devices can be traced and monitored by different methods such as the capture of data packets.
With regard to the Snowden affair, the NSA has insisted that they mostly monitor abroad and that intended targets are not U.S. citizens. The problem with these statements is that U.S. citizens no longer trust agencies such as the NSA and are not ready to believe everything that the government, which is sworn to protect the interests of the people, is ready to tell them.
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