while we’re all waiting to hear more about the impending vote on the f.i.s.a. renewal in the coming days, you might want to take a little time off from the primaries to familiarize yourselves with this little-publicized nugget:
US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search
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more below…
In a long profile published by The New Yorker this week (not yet online)…Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell discusses a plan in the works to dramatically expand online surveillance. As The Wall Street Journal sums it up, “in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse.”
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…the kind of authority McConnell envisions is apt to be a hard sell: “Americans will have to trust the government not to abuse the authority it must have in order to protect our networks, and yet, historically the government has not proved worthy of that trust.” McConnell acknowledges that his initiative is bound to spark debate that will make recent wrangling over reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act seem like “a walk in the park compared to this.”…According to the article, in order for cyberspace to be policed, Internet activity will have to be closely monitored. Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the authority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer, or Web search…
l don’t know about you, but the mere mention of “trusting the government”, especially the current administration, with that kind of legalized access is more than a bit ‘beyond the pale’ in the world l prefer.
but apparently,they’re serious about it, and keeping it very close to their vest. it’s so hush, hush that even the congress can’t get any meaningful information regarding it:
Even members of Congress don’t appear to be getting a much more adequate explanation of which powers will be necessary for which reasons. The Journal cites Congressional aides reporting that legislators had learned more from media reports than from secret briefings on the initiative. Perhaps the hope is that lawmakers will cede whatever authority is requested, so long as it involves that confusing “series of tubes.”
read the entire article at ars technica…and have a nice weekend.
