新开封的法庭文件显示，在命令 Facebook、WhatsApp 或任何科技公司帮助机构秘密监视用户时，美国​​不需要知道他们的目标是谁，也不需要表明可能的原因。

美国联邦机构一直在使用一项已有 35 年历史的美国监控法来秘密跟踪 WhatsApp 用户，但没有解释原因，也不知道他们的目标是谁。

在俄亥俄州，一个刚刚启封的政府监控应用程序显示，2021 年 11 月，DEA 调查人员要求 Facebook 旗下的消息传递公司追踪 7 名位于中国和澳门的用户。该应用程序显示，DEA 不知道任何目标的身份，但告诉 WhatsApp 监控目标用户正在与之通信的 IP 地址和号码，以及他们何时以及如何使用该应用程序。这种监视是使用一种称为笔式寄存器的技术并根据1986 年的笔式寄存器法完成的，并且不会寻找任何 WhatsApp 无论如何都无法提供的消息内容，因为它是端到端加密的。

正如福布斯此前报道的那样，至少在过去两年中，美国执法部门多次命令 WhatsApp 和其他科技公司安装这些笔式寄存器，但没有显示任何可能的原因。与之前的案例一样，追踪中国用户的政府命令附带了一项声明，即司法部只需要提供三个“要素”来证明追踪 WhatsApp 用户的合理性。它们包括：提出申请的律师或执法人员的身份；提出申请的机构的身份；以及申请人的证明，证明“可能获得的信息与该机构正在进行的刑事调查有关”。

政府在最新的申请中写道：“除了上述三个要素外，联邦法律不要求申请授权安装和使用笔录机和陷阱和追踪设备的命令说明任何事实。”

最新的案例表明，美国的不明原因窥探行为具有全球影响力，远远超出国内 WhatsApp 用户和邻国用户，影响到政府不知道身份的外国目标。根据福布斯出土的另一份法庭文件，之前在俄亥俄州的一个案件中，又有 7 名 WhatsApp 用户成为目标，其中 3 名在美国，4 名在墨西哥。对于每一个，美国要么知道用户的别名，要么知道用户的真实姓名。

WhatsApp Ordered To Help U.S. Agents Spy On Chinese Phones—No Explanation Required

The U.S. doesn’t need to know whom they’re targeting or show probable cause when ordering Facebook, WhatsApp or any tech company to help agencies spy on users in secret, newly unsealed court documents show.

U.S. federal agencies have been using a 35-year-old American surveillance law to secretly track WhatsApp users with no explanation as to why and without knowing whom they are targeting.

In Ohio, a just-unsealed government surveillance application reveals that in November 2021, DEA investigators demanded the Facebook-owned messaging company track seven users based in China and Macau. The application reveals the DEA didn’t know the identities of any of the targets, but told WhatsApp to monitor the IP addresses and numbers with which the targeted users were communicating, as well as when and how they were using the app. Such surveillance is done using a technology known as a pen register and under the 1986 Pen Register Act, and doesn't seek any message content, which WhatsApp couldn’t provide anyway, as it is end-to-end encrypted.

As Forbes previously reported, over at least the last two years, law enforcement in the U.S. has repeatedly ordered WhatsApp and other tech companies to install these pen registers without showing any probable cause. As in those previous cases, the government order to trace Chinese users came with the statement that the Justice Department only needed to provide three “elements” to justify tracking of WhatsApp users. They include: the identity of the attorney or the law enforcement officer making the application; the identity of the agency making the application; and a certification from the applicant that “the information likely to be obtained is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by that agency.”

“Other than the three elements described above, federal law does not require that an application for an order authorizing the installation and use of a pen register and a trap and trace device specify any facts,” the government wrote in the latest application.

The latest case shows that America’s unexplained snooping has a global reach, far beyond domestic WhatsApp users and those in neighboring countries, affecting foreign targets whose identities the government does not know. According to another court document unearthed by Forbes, one previous case in Ohio saw another seven WhatsApp users targeted, three in the U.S., four in Mexico. For each, the U.S. either knew the alias or the real name of the user.