IPSecure
07-29-2010, 11:00 AM
While the two administrations certainly have their differences, the Obama administration is following the Bush administration's lead on a number of fronts -- specifically in terms of surveillance and privacy in the digital age. According to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/28/AR2010072806141.html), the Obama camp is working to make it easier for the FBI to compel your ISP to turn over your online activity records without a court order "if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation:"
The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.
Of course the problem has traditionally been that the FBI (and major carriers) haven't been particularly good at following the law (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/106553), and the FBI has consistently faked terrorism emergencies (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/106485) to get access to whatever data they're looking for. As the Post notes, the government portrays these desired changes as technical clarification to resolve legal ambiguity, while privacy watchdogs and others note it's simply an expansion of government power and extended use of "national security letters," which have been abused extensively (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Repeatedly-Helped-FBI-Break-Communications-Law-106553) by both government and companies like AT&T.
Update: Amusingly, the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-0729-fbi-cheating-20100728,0,1470358.story) today is running a related piece discussing how the FBI is being investigated for agents cheating on a test designed to help them avoid the kind of privacy and wiretap abuse the agency has been repeatedly called out for in recent years.
Link (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/White-House-Pushes-For-Warrantless-Access-To-ISP-Records-109641)
The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication.
Of course the problem has traditionally been that the FBI (and major carriers) haven't been particularly good at following the law (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/106553), and the FBI has consistently faked terrorism emergencies (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/106485) to get access to whatever data they're looking for. As the Post notes, the government portrays these desired changes as technical clarification to resolve legal ambiguity, while privacy watchdogs and others note it's simply an expansion of government power and extended use of "national security letters," which have been abused extensively (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Repeatedly-Helped-FBI-Break-Communications-Law-106553) by both government and companies like AT&T.
Update: Amusingly, the Los Angeles Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sc-dc-0729-fbi-cheating-20100728,0,1470358.story) today is running a related piece discussing how the FBI is being investigated for agents cheating on a test designed to help them avoid the kind of privacy and wiretap abuse the agency has been repeatedly called out for in recent years.
Link (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/White-House-Pushes-For-Warrantless-Access-To-ISP-Records-109641)