TC LI

Supporting international requirements for law enforcement agencies, including interception of content and disclosure of electronic communications related data with supporting standards for warrantry and internal interfaces.

ETSI’s Technical Committee on Lawful Interception (TC LI) develops standards that support the technical requirements of national and international obligations for law enforcement. These include the lawful interception and disclosure of the communications-related data of electronic communications.

Lawful Interception (LI) and Lawful Disclosure (LD) play a crucial role in helping law enforcement agencies to investigate terrorism and serious criminal activities, thus making the global community more secure. We have pioneered the development and maintenance of LI and LD capabilities, and ETSI standards are being adopted around the world due to the increased efficiency and lower cost resulting from their use.

Key areas of work

Handover interface

Development and publication of control and handover interfaces for electronic data.

Warrantry interface

Specification of rules to exchange information between a Communications Service Provider (CSP) and a Law Enforcement Agency (LEA), e.g. typically through a warrantry interface.

IP delivery

Maintenance of standards specifying a handover Interface and Service-Specific Details (SSD) for IP delivery.

Common parameters

Specification and maintenance of LI common parameters.

Technology specific data

Specification of rules for the delivery of technology specific data, such as LI for vehicle communication and for satellite communication.

Safety

Other areas including support for public safety and life at risk queries such as provision of location.

What we do
- Support for the EU resolution of 17th January 1995 stating that “the legally authorised interception of telecommunications is an important tool for the protection of national interest, in particular national security and the investigation of serious crime”.
- Development, in partnership with other ETSI and international bodies, projects and partnerships, of a suite of standards that allow ETSI standards to support industry compliance to the requirements of national and international law. TC LI standards are exclusively of technical nature.
- Standardisation work for the e-Evidence Regulation (EU) 2023/1543, supporting National Authorities and Service Providers in understanding and complying with its requirements.
- Work closely with other ETSI TCs to ensure continuity of compliance.
- Perform work sub-contracted from ETSI Projects and ETSI Partnership Projects.
- Validation of ETSI standards, i.e. ensuring that the standard can be fully implemented, providing the intended level of functionality and performance at minimum cost, as defined in the scope of the related ETSI work item.
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