Right on the heels of Bush's bold (read "vague" and "without any actual plan" - see also the mission to Mars) call for universal broadband access by 2007, we have the FBI putting their own unsettling spin on "universal access":
An FBI proposal to make it easier for the government to wiretap high-speed Internet communications is drawing criticism from businesses and privacy experts who fear it could stifle technological innovation and allow too much monitoring of online conversations.The FBI's present authority to tap phone calls and review e-mails and instant messages is contingent on acquiring a court order. Phone calls made via Internet connections, an increasingly common technology, are more difficult to tap.
Now law enforcement agencies, arguing that their ability to track terrorists and other criminals is at stake, have asked the Federal Communications Commission to force providers of high-speed Internet access to retool their networks to make government eavesdropping easier — while passing the costs along to Internet users.
On Monday, the FCC closed its 30-day comment period on the FBI request, amid a raging debate over whether there would be safeguards to prevent the government from intercepting online communications between innocent parties.
The FBI doesn't just want to subpoena suspicious communications after they have been sent, but rather to monitor instant messages and e-mails as they are being exchanged, according to Dave Baker, vice president for public policy at EarthLink, a major Internet service provider based in Atlanta.
"We have a long history of cooperating with law enforcement," Baker said, but the proposed changes would expand police powers by greatly enhancing "the ability to get real-time intercepts."
That could lead to far more police surveillance of the Internet, he predicted. "It's the camel's nose under the tent," he said.
Baker said he had no estimate of what the changes would cost, but it would not be trivial. "At the very least, you would be driving up costs . . . and compromising innovation," he said.
"This would radically change how the Internet develops," said John Morris, staff counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a public interest group based in Washington. "If the FBI has its way, the companies themselves will go overseas because tech innovation will leave the United States."
The FBI, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration filed a petition last month asking the FCC to require a re-engineering of broadband networks to allow for easier eavesdropping.
In addition, the federal law enforcement agencies want the FCC to allow the Internet companies to pass along to consumers any higher costs. (from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
