Weekly column: FBI's latest wiretapping push [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5193750.html?tag=nefd.acpro

Shhh! The FBI's listening to your keystrokes
April 19, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

The FBI is trying to convince the government to mandate that providers 
of broadband, Internet telephony, and instant-messaging services build 
in backdoors for easy wiretapping.

That would constitute a sweeping expansion of police surveillance 
powers. Instead of asking Congress to approve the request, the FBI 
(along with the Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement 
Administration) are pressing the Federal Communications Commission to 
move forward with minimal public input.

The three agencies argue that the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law 
Enforcement Act (CALEA) permits the FCC to rewire the Internet to suit 
the eavesdropping establishment.

"The importance and the urgency of this task cannot be overstated," 
their proposal says. "The ability of federal, state and local law 
enforcement to carry out critical electronic surveillance is being 
compromised today."

Unfortunately for the three agencies, CALEA, as it's written, would not 
grant the request.

When Congress was debating CALEA, then-FBI Director Louis Freeh 
reassured nervous senators that the law would be limited to telephone 
calls. (CALEA was intended to let police wiretap conversations flowing 
through then-novel services like cellular phones and three-way calling.)

"So what we are looking for is strictly telephone--what is said over a 
telephone?" Sen. Larry Pressler, R-S.D., asked.

Freeh replied: "That is the way I understand it. Yes, sir."

A House of Representatives committee report prepared in October 1994 is 
emphatic, saying CALEA's requirements "do not apply to information 
services such as electronic-mail services; or online services such as 
CompuServe, Prodigy, America Online or Mead Data (Central); or to 
Internet service providers."

[...remainder snipped...]
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