British Premier David Cameron has made much in recent days of his desire to have absolute, unchecked surveillance power over all forms of communication, and is pushing President Obama to endorse that.
Cameron, who insists no form of communication should be encrypted from his prying eyes, has to deal with the fact that Britons are using American software and services for a lot of this communication.
That’s where Obama comes in, as Cameron is pushing for Obama to endorse a scheme to create a special government backdoor in Google and Facebook to allow the British government to surveil them at will.
In the wake of the Paris terror attack, Cameron is looking to dramatically increase his government surveillance powers, and President Obama is expressing support for increased cooperation, which suggests that while he probably won’t want to publicly admit it, he may well accept the move.
This should be interesting… The Republicans all get bent out of shape when (Obama's) government attempts to tell a company how to run it's business (Hobby Lobby). So, with all the republican concern regarding national security (they say), forcing Google and Facebook to create special access portals for the government to spy on their clients seems to fly in the face of their oft stated beliefs – that government shouldn't tell a business how to operate.