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With only a letter, FBI can gather private
data Richard Willing, USA Today, July 07, 2006 According to
Michael Woods, chief of the FBI's national security law unit from 1999 to 2002,
National Security Letters can be used to retrieve: • Internet and telephone data, including names, addresses, log-on
times, toll records, e-mail addresses and service providers. • Financial records, including bank accounts and money transfers,
provided the FBI says they are needed to "protect against international
terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." • Credit information, such as an individual's banks, loan companies,
mortgage holders or other financial institutions. • Consumer, financial and foreign travel records held by "any
commercial entity," if the investigation's target is an executive branch
employee with a security clearance. Only FBI agents can obtain phone, computer and financial records. Other
federal agencies that gather intelligence on international terrorism can get
consumer credit reports and credit agency data. They include the CIA, Defense
Intelligence Agency and Transportation Security Administration. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-05-fbi-letters_x.htm FBI plans new Net-tapping push By Declan McCullagh, CNET News, Sat. Jul 08 2006 The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that
would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police
surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for
eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned. FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private
meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be
introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources
familiar with the meeting. The draft bill would place the FBI's
Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a
legal challenge from universities and some technology
companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband
surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized. The FBI claims that expanding the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement
Act
(CALEA) is necessary to thwart criminals and terrorists who have turned to
technologies like voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP. "The complexity and variety of communications technologies have dramatically increased in recent
years, and the lawful intercept capabilities of the federal, state and local
law enforcement community have been under continual stress, and in many cases
have decreased or become impossible," according to a summary accompanying
the draft bill. Complicating the political outlook for the legislation is an
ongoing debate over allegedly illegal surveillance by
the National Security Administration - punctuated by several lawsuits challenging it on constitutional grounds
and an unrelated proposal to force Internet service providers to
record what Americans are doing online. One source, who asked not to be
identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the
FBI viewed its CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007. Breaking the legislation down • Require any manufacturer of "routing" and
"addressing" hardware to offer upgrades or other
"modifications" that are needed to support Internet wiretapping. Current law does require that of
telephone switch manufacturers - but not makers of routers and network address translation hardware like Cisco Systems and 2Wire. • Authorize the expansion of wiretapping requirements
to "commercial"
Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC deems it to be in the "public
interest." That would likely sweep in services such as in-game chats
offered by Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system as well. • Force Internet service providers to sift through
their customers' communications to identify, for instance, only VoIP calls.
(The language requires companies to adhere to "processing or filtering
methods or procedures applied by a law enforcement agency.") That means
police could simply ask broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast or Verizon
for wiretap info - instead of having to figure out what VoIP service was being
used. • Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the
Justice Department must publish a public "notice of the actual number of
communications interceptions" every year. That notice currently also must
disclose the "maximum capacity" required to accommodate all of the
legally authorized taps that government agencies will "conduct and use
simultaneously." Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato
Institute and member of a Homeland Security advisory board, said the proposal
would "have a negative impact on Internet users' privacy." "People expect their information
to be private unless the government meets certain legal standards," Harper
said. "Right now the Department of Justice is pushing the wrong way on all
this." Neither the FBI nor DeWine's office responded to a request
for comment Friday afternoon. DeWine has relatively low approval ratings--47 percent, according to SurveyUSA.com--and is
enmeshed in a fierce battle with a Democratic challenger to retain his Senate
seat in the November elections. DeWine is a member of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing electronic
privacy and antiterrorism enforcement and is a former prosecutor in Ohio. A panel of the U.S.
Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., decided 2-1 last month to uphold the FCC's extension of CALEA
to broadband providers, and it's not clear what will happen next with the
lawsuit. Judge Harry Edwards wrote in his dissent that the majority's logic
gave the FCC "unlimited authority to regulate every telecommunications
service that might conceivably be used to assist law enforcement." The organizations
behind the lawsuit say Congress never intended CALEA to force broadband
providers--and networks at corporations and universities--to build in central
surveillance hubs for the police. The list of organizations includes Sun
Microsystems, Pulver.com, the American Association of Community Colleges, the
Association of American Universities and the American Library Association. If the FBI's
legislation becomes law, it would derail the lawsuit because there would no
longer be any question that Congress intended CALEA to apply to the Internet. http://news.com.com/FBI+plans+new+Net-tapping+push/2100-1028_3-6091942.html |
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