Feds want to expand wiretap law from ISPs to Google, Facebook

[shamu726]

FBI wants Web companies to make digital "back doors," or pay fines.

For two years now, the FBI has been talking about how new Internet communications technologies are stopping them from getting the bad guys. In 2011, the FBI's top lawyer called it the "going dark" problem. Last year, FBI Director Robert Mueller related similar concerns to Congress, stating it needs "wiretapping backdoors" into popular websites, or it would have to shut down more investigations. The FBI's position was reportedly that installing such "backdoors" should be mandatory, not optional.

Now it looks like those proposals are back, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper cites unnamed administration officials saying that Facebook and Google are specifically being pressured to allow for electronic communications to be intercepted "as they occur"—a kind of digital-age wiretap that could read, for instance, Facebook messages or Gchats.

In the new proposal, which is still in draft form, not only would installing backdoors be mandatory, there would be fines for companies that didn't comply. The exact amount isn't clear, but it would consist of "a series of escalating fines, starting at tens of thousands of dollars." It gets worse: "After 90 days, fines that remain unpaid would double daily."

Law enforcement's ability to wiretap was already extended to Internet technologies like VoIP with the 1994 CALEA law. But that law is written to apply to Internet service providers, not giant web companies like Google and Facebook—hence the FBI's desire for expansion.

The FBI declined to comment on the piece, but the Post quotes the FBI's top lawyer complaining publicly that the agency doesn't have access to techniques that are available to law enforcement in other nations.

“The importance to us is pretty clear,” said FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann, speaking at an American Bar Association conference in March. “We don’t have the ability to go to court and say, ‘We need a court order to effectuate the intercept.’ Other countries have that. Most people assume that’s what you’re getting when you go to a court.”

Tech companies will probably react coolly to this proposals, as they did to proposed CALEA expansions last year. "It’s important to also understand that law enforcement today has access to a vast wealth of information about suspects that their predecessors merely a decade ago could only have dreamed of," said Computer and Communications Industry Association president Ed Black. "The claims of ‘going dark’ must be evaluated in this context: massive amounts of information are stored online and shared with law enforcement—when they have gone through the proper process."

Source: Ars Technica

[Cypher3927]

Oh so they can do legally what they've already been doing in secret for lord knows how many years? If they really need approval then what's the deal with articles such as this?: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57581161-38/u.s-gives-big-secret-push-to-internet-surveillance/ or how about this one?: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/ The scary thing is those are only the stories that we know about. How many more have been swept under the rug by one three letter organization or other? The United States government is completely out of control and no longer represents it's citizens. Yet the wheels of the military-industrial complex continue to spin because people are too busy caring about Facebook, Hollywood and the insipid garbage that passes as music these days. Keep sleeping and maybe one day you'll have an interesting story to tell your kids about how freedom died.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

-Benjamin Franklin

And here's Dwight Eisenhower's speech and warning concerning the military-industrial complex:

[hamslammer]

Oh so they can do legally what they've already been doing in secret for lord knows how many years? If they really need approval then what's the deal with articles such as this?: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57581161-38/u.s-gives-big-secret-push-to-internet-surveillance/ or how about this one?: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/ The scary thing is those are only the stories that we know about. How many more have been swept under the rug by one three letter organization or other? The United States government is completely out of control and no longer represents it's citizens. Yet the wheels of the military-industrial complex continue to spin because people are too busy caring about Facebook, Hollywood and the insipid garbage that passes as music these days. Keep sleeping and maybe one day you'll have an interesting story to tell your kids about how freedom died.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

-Benjamin Franklin

And here's Dwight Eisenhower's speech and warning concerning the military-industrial complex:

Well said my friend, couldn't agree more with you. We had better wake up before it is too late.

[Whoopenstein]

I would like to see the bad guys caught, but not at this price. I know it must be frustrating for them.

Once you open the door though, there would be rampant abuse.

What really disturbs me is that there are people in government that are trying to push this though in the first place. :wtf:

Perhaps these guys should move to North Korea where these kinds of ideas will get you a pat on the back.

[dMog]

i am in total agreement with his "military industrial complex speech" however..if any politician made that same speech to today...one party in the USA would begin to label him as a pinko and a red and and soft on terrorists not to mention not friendly to big business and the very wealthy... not that would dare mention what party would be doing that but it it is no too hard to figure out what party stands for that type of rhetoric

[nIGHT]

In the past, this kind of thread is usually dealt with many long posts. Hmmm.... it's too silent now. :rolleyes:

Did he really meant to do it literally? You know what I mean! Man, I hope he didn't. :unsure: