President Obama is reportedly considering endorsing an FBI plan for a new series of laws requiring all Internet companies to build-in to all online systems a “capacity to comply with wiretap orders.”
The Obama Administration, and the Bush Administration before it, have previously tried to expand existing legislation into the Internet, demanding online companies give them virtually limitless access to anything that might be used for communication.
The problem is that an awful lot of existing systems not only don’t have the capability to spy on their users, but in many cases are explicitly designed with privacy in mind. This is the antithesis of the FBI goal of total information awareness.
Which has the FBI pushing for these new laws “requiring” all this software to be revised with their spying in mind. First efforts at the law were stalling in Congress over fear of “stifling innovation,” sparking the new proposal of just fining every company that the Justice Department feels like going after who doesn’t comply.
If President Obama does endorse it, analysts say it could spark a major Congressional debate about privacy, something the FBI clearly doesn’t want. More importantly, however, is that open source software will by definition allow end users to remove all of these wiretapping “features,” which makes the law completely unworkable to a broad segment of communications software.
what about things like Tor or VPN?
"may" back? Of course he will. Not like he has a choice. He's gotta obey whatever his masters in the shadow government tell him to do.
"Shadow" government? Who needs one when the original government sits now in the shadows, operates by the "secret" and cannot he held accountable anymore for all her deeds?
Why does everyone refuse to believe that Obama really supports all these things that he supports?
In 2008, Wall Street paid for a major pr campaign that convinced voters that Obama was some sort of progressive. Of course, there was never any 'record' to back this up. In fact, in the middle of this Obama left the campaign trail to fly back to the Senate to lead the charge to pass a bill that gave immunity to companies that illegally spied on Americans at Bush's request.
Yet, years later, we still see this strange mistaken belief that somehow Obama doesn't really support this stuff, but that he's mysteriously being forced to do this.
Amazing. I really wish people would just wake up to reality. That of course is necessary if we as a nation are ever going to stop electing more Presidents and Congress' just like this one. Please, wake up and try something different some time.
Obama is nothing but Bush II. All of these illegal activities have been going on since 2001. StratCom , the NSA, FBI and the CIA have been illegally stalking, hacking, cyber attacking and spying on Americans for far too long. None of these goons could find dog poop in a dog kennel. Look at the Tsarnaev brothers and the 3 perverts/pedophiles in Clevelend. They hid in plain sight.
Lying SOB and the stupid SOB's who vote these swine, of whichever party, into office.
"..The problem is that an awful lot of existing systems not only don’t have the capability to spy on their users, but in many cases are explicitly designed with privacy in mind. .."
OK…so we understand you know how to cut & paste…what was your point?
Of course, they are designed that way because the companies understand that their customers want privacy. They weren't going to sell many if it says right on the box as an advertised feature that its open to being spied on by anyone who can spell 'terrorist'.
When the people and customers have a say, privacy is very important. Its the President and the Congress and the vast army of police that want to be able to read everything and spy on everyone.
Me, I'm part of the 3% that voted for candidates who wouldn't support this.
Note in the article that the FBI calls this 'going dark'. This of course means that the FBI has been spying on everyone for years, otherwise they wouldn't call the current tech as 'going dark'. Read the history of the NSA, and you'll find it goes all the way back to the government illegally intercepting every telegraph msg being sent.