At first, the Obama web strategy for the nation appeared to be a call for broadband accessibility befitting a first world nation. However, the White House has something else it wants done online. As if the Patriot Act was not enough, the Obama administration and the law enforcement and intelligence agencies are putting together legislation that will expand federal accessibility to the telecommunications industry. The bill isn’t anywhere close to done. That said, the monitoring powers of the government will be dramatically expanded if it does. You will find few methods of electronic communication that aren’t already under . This will shorten that list even further.
Obama internet regulations
According to the NY Times, the White House wants to pass a bill expanding surveillance and wiretap accessibility for intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The bill builds upon existing jurisdictions. The Obama administration is behind the bill, which is due next year. The amount of communications the government already has accessibility to is ample, which will expand if the bill passes. Some forms of digital communications are private and encrypted, while many others are not secret at all to the government.
Small company will suffer
Though this law would certainly favor large corporations that have the engineering staff to deal with brand new specifications, startup tech companies could be at a disadvantage. The recent ban of the Blackberry in several countries was due to Research In Motion having designed the phone so e-mails and texts are encrypted, private communications. RIM is working double time to comply with monitoring needs of governments. Other companies, for instance Skype and other voice over web protocol or VOIP businesses may have to re-engineer their products to keep up also. Law enforcement and intelligence officials have complained that their surveillance abilities are “going dark,” as fewer individuals rely totally on phone communications.
Free mouth
Except for sign language, few methods of communication are exempt from the ability of federal to listen in. There was a great deal of controversy over the Bush domestic spying program. Obama has not dealt with fears of subversion of civil liberties. Though further potential encroachment on privacy seems almost egregious, there is the security issue to deal with. The government maintains that it isn’t overstepping its bounds in requesting greater accessibility. Powers of this sort can be used for good, however are very easily misused.
Citations
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?pagewanted=1
