FBI Wants Forced Surveillance Backdoors For Web Sites – Right Now!
Anyone who thought that the government and law enforcement’s desire to to be able to monitor or be able to access your information any time they wanted would go away after the resounding smackdown of SOPA and PIPA are living in a dream world.
The moment one attempt gets stopped there is another one waiting in the wings, as we have seen with the introduction, and passage in the House of Representatives, of CISPA.
Now we have word that the FBI is very quietly trying to force social networks, VoIP providers, and Web email providers to always make sure that there is a backdoor into their systems. They are also trying to get these companies to not oppose the FBI’s attempt to get a law passed that would make these backdoors mandatory.
The law, which was drafted by the FBI general counsel’s office, would require that social networking sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web email make modifications to their code so that their products are always wiretap friendly
“If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding,” a person who has reviewed the FBI’s draft legislation told CNET. The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second person briefed on it.
via Cnet News
Also it seems that the FBI aren’t alone here as it appears that the FCC is reconsidering reinterpreting CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) so that companies that allow voice chat or video over the Internet would be forced to include surveillance backdoors.
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Steven Hodson Steven has been around the tech world long enough to see most of the stuff we think of cool happen before which leads to a certain bit of cynicism that has contributed to him being known as the cranky old fart of the Internet. Besides sharing some of the goodness that he finds with you here at 42x you can also find him curating some digital goodness at Winextra (tech type stuff) and Rotten Gumdrops (for your daily dose of WTF).
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