U.S. Weighs Wide Overhaul of Wiretap Laws

New York Times ^ | 5/7/2013 | Charlie Savage

[IbJensen]

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.

The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, has argued that the bureau’s ability to carry out court-approved eavesdropping on suspects is “going dark” as communications technology evolves, and since 2010 has pushed for a legal mandate requiring companies like Facebook and Google to build into their instant-messaging and other such systems a capacity to comply with wiretap orders. That proposal, however, bogged down amid concerns by other agencies, like the Commerce Department, about quashing Silicon Valley innovation.

While the F.B.I.’s original proposal would have required Internet communications services to each build in a wiretapping capacity, the revised one, which must now be reviewed by the White House, focuses on fining companies that do not comply with wiretap orders. The difference, officials say, means that start-ups with a small number of users would have fewer worries about wiretapping issues unless the companies became popular enough to come to the Justice Department’s attention.

Still, the plan is likely to set off a debate over the future of the Internet if the White House submits it to Congress, according to lawyers for technology companies and advocates of Internet privacy and freedom.

[IbJensen]

We have it all backwards. We are supposed to know everything our Government is doing and our Government is not supposed to know anything we are doing, absent probable cause to believe we have committed a crime (yes, that is part of the constitution). Instead, our government operates in complete secrecy while we are subject to government snoops reading and listening to everything we write and say. I fail to recognize this country any longer and the fact a supposed constitutional law scholar and community agitator is at its helm makes the loss of privacy all the more outrageous.

[Repeal The 17th]

They want to be able to read everyone’s email?
Well, I guess the next thing you know,
they’ll want to open everyone’s postal mail.

[Jyotishi]

It is safe to assume that there is a near-zero measure of privacy in most forms of communication.

[muawiyah]

It’s called a ‘mail cover’ ~ they get the delivery address and the origin address, and a record of all the marks on the mailpiece. Today there’s an incredible amount of invisible printing on letters so there’s information there you have no idea about.

[DesertRhino]

I remember when the press and the youth were opposed to the government, and the ACLU would have had a heart failure about intercepting and recording every phone call, email, and facebook post in America.

We are living in a police surveillance state that the NKVD and Stasi never dreamed of actually achieving.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

It is safe to assume that there is a near-zero measure of privacy in most forms of communication.

From my old army days.
Most secure, messenger with sealed missive
Medium security, telephone
Low security, radio.

Plug in the modern world technology where it belongs.

[familyop]

Apparently, there’s a lack of understanding about the need for a productive economy.

[loungitude]

It’s called a ‘mail cover’ ~ they get the delivery address and the origin address, and a record of all the marks on the mailpiece. Today there’s an incredible amount of invisible printing on letters so there’s information there you have no idea about.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please elaborate - information gets placed on the outside of a letter pickup and delivery? How does that compromise the contents of the letter? Or am I misunderstanding your point?

[muawiyah]

It would take entirely too much time to discuss all the things you can do with encoded invisible processing information ~ but one example ought to help. Let's say the visible cancellation says Los Angeles, and the return address says Los Angeles, but the first point of barcode application is actually New York City ~ that barcode information will be invisible.

There are some normal events that could bring this about, but there's also the possibility that somebody in New York is entering mail pieces that you'll think are from Los Angeles.

The contents may well have no meaning at all until you, in Philadelphia, read them thinking the mailpiece originated in Los Angeles ~

Could be a mad bomber at work; perhaps someone sending poisons to you; possibly someone commiting some other sort of crime against you ~

It is possible to run mail covers on everything these days ~ and with just a bit of operating information you can probably surface suspicious mail and send it to the postal facility that does chemical analysis on it first before it's sent on to the customer.

[loungitude]

Thanks, but the invisible markings are readable by the post office right? Are you proposing a conspiracy involving the PO?
Not that I think it’s improbable, ...

[muawiyah]

They’re easy to read with the right equipment. It’s simply routing information ~