Still haven’t gotten used to the idea that the feds can legally wiretap your phone conversations? Well, then I have some bad news for you: now they’re going after the Internet!
Federal law enforcement and national security officials want to force companies like Facebook, Skype, and BlackBerry to let them wiretap your accounts. The feds want sweeping authority over all services that enable communications. That means email, IM, any social network, pokes, tweets, and pings could all be subjected to federal eavesdropping.
FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni is discouraging any theory that the U.S. is quickly becoming a police state, pointing out that the same legal precedents would apply as do currently in phone taps. “We’re talking about lawfully authorized intercepts,” Caproni said. “We’re not talking expanding authority. We’re talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security.” Caproni went on to explain that as terrorists now communicate more by the web and less by the phone, federal officials need access to those online communications.
