If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, right?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Randall Webmail <rvh40 () insightbb com>
> Date: April 26, 2008 8:44:00 AM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>, "dewayne () warpspeed com" <dewayne () warpspeed com 
> >, "johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com" <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
> Subject: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, right?

>      FBI wants widespread monitoring of 'illegal' Internet activity
>                 Posted by Anne Broache
>
> WASHINGTON--The FBI on Wednesday called for new legislation that would
> allow federal police to monitor the Internet for "illegal activity."
>
> The suggestion from FBI Director Robert Mueller, which came during a
> House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, appears to go
> beyond a current plan to monitor traffic on federal-government
> networks. Mueller seemed to suggest that the bureau should have a  
> broad
> "omnibus" authority to conduct monitoring and surveillance of
> private-sector networks as well.
>
> The surveillance should include all Internet traffic, Mueller said,
> "whether it be .mil, .gov, .com--whichever network you're talking
> about." (See the transcript of the hearing.)
>
> In response to questions from Rep. Darrell Issa, a California
> Republican, Mueller said his idea "balances on one hand, the privacy
> rights of the individual who are receiving the information, but on the
> other hand, given the technology, the necessity of having some omnibus
> search capability utilizing filters that would identify the illegal
> activity as it comes through and give us the ability to preempt that
> illegal activity where it comes through a choke point."
>
> In response, Issa said: "Can you have someone on your staff
> designated to work with members of Congress on trying to craft that
> legislation?"
>
> If any omnibus Internet-monitoring proposal became law, it could
> implicate the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of freedom from  
> unreasonable
> searches and seizures. In general, courts have ruled that police need
> search warrants to obtain the content of communication, and the  
> federal
> Wiretap Act created "super warrant" wiretap orders that require  
> additional steps and judicial oversight.
>
> In addition, it's unclear whether "illegal activity" would be limited
> to responding to denial-of-service attacks and botnets, or would also
> include detecting other illegal activities, such as online gambling,
> the distribution of "obscene" images of adults engaged in sexual acts,
> or selling drugs without a license.
>
> To be fair, Wednesday's discussion of the plan was geared toward
> cybercrime and the Bush administration's classified "cyberinitiative,"
> which includes a shadowy program known as Einstein.
>
> Some politicians have already raised concerns that even Einstein,  
> which
> is described as dealing only with government networks and not private
> ones, could infringe upon the privacy rights of American citizens.  
> It's
> already in place at 15 federal agencies, but Homeland Security has  
> said
> it's still preparing the necessary privacy impact assessments for a
> proposed $293 million governmentwide Einstein expansion.
>
> Issa, for his part, referred on Wednesday to malicious attacks being
> undertaken by foreign and domestic hackers who want to "take control  
> of
> computers" and harvest the national-security secrets and private
> information of government agencies, private companies, and individual
> Americans.
>
> "What authorities do you need to monitor, looking for those illegal
> activities, and then act on those, both defensively and, either
> yourselves or certainly other agencies, offensively in order to shut
> down a crime in process?" Issa asked.
>
> In response, Mueller said he would be happy to have his legislative
> staff work with members of Issa's committee on creating a bill for a
> broader-reaching surveillance system.
>
> Issa suggested that perhaps the FBI already has the power to seek
> voluntary private-sector partners that would like to be "defended" by
> its agents, provided that they give the FBI their consent. Mueller,
> however, wasn't so sure, saying, "that's going to require some
> thought."
>
> [6:00 pm: Updated story with additional quotations from transcript  
> of the hearing.]
>
> CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.
>
> <http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9926899-7.html>

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