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Ashcroft wins internet snooping fight

The Justice Department has been trying to sneak this unwarranted invasion of privacy through for the last two years. It appears they are poised to succeed in their quest as US regulators tentatively ruled in favor of a proposal that would compel Internet broadband and VoIP providers to open their networks up to easy surveillance by law enforcement agencies.

They do not need this provision and the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which mandates surveillance backdoors in U.S. telephone networks, allowing the FBI to start listening in on a target's phone calls within minutes of receiving court approval, already gives them enough power to spy on US citizens.

The Act clearly states it should not apply to the internet in the first place and the technology required to enable them to eavesdrop in this venue will also leave you vulnerable to exploitation by hackers and other cyber-criminal types. The EFF, ACLU, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy and Technology all filed comments opposing the plan, and an ACLU letter-drive generated hundreds of mailings from citizens against the proposal, all to no avail apparently.

It's still possible to make comments to the FCC on this before it's actually enacted. Make no mistake about it folks, they are selling this proposal as a anti-terrorism tool but just as with every other terrorism-related legislation, it's a matter of time until they will be using this against political dissenters and substance consumers as well. Don't let it pass unremarked.

UPDATE: Declan McCullagh has more on this story at CNET with talking points to bring up with the FCC including this very important point relative to its intended use.

You've been saying that terrorists may use VoIP services to "evade lawful electronic surveillance." But the only detailed court statistics available show that 77 percent of wiretap applications were for drug crimes, and terrorism-related offenses were so few they didn't even make the chart. Is terrorism the real reason behind your wiretap push?

From this boneheaded proposal to the Patriot Act and beyond, in practical terms, the bigger question is of course whether anything this administration has done in the name of homeland security has had anything to do with terrorism.