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 restrictions
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 bill is due sometime next year. The Obama administration backs the idea. A great deal of communications is already mandated to allow government access for surveillance purposes. The list will simply get bigger. Some forms of digital communications are private and encrypted, while many others aren’t secret at all to the government.
Little companies will lose out
Regulations tend to favor the businesses that can afford to keep up with them. A large tech firm with a generous engineering staff will hardly be fazed, whereas a little startup can be disadvantaged. The recent ban of the Blackberry in several countries was due to Research In Motion having intended the phone so e-mails and texts are encrypted, private communications. RIM is in the process of complying with surveillance needs of several governments, and companies such as Skype and other VOIP, or voice over web protocol, businesses may have to re-engineer their products to regulatory standards. Law enforcement and intelligence officials have complained that their surveillance abilities are “going dark,” as fewer individuals rely totally on phone communications.
Electrical ears
There are few methods of communication, besides speaking in person, that are not subject to domestic surveillance. Granted, Obama has not had a scandal comparable to the Bush domestic spying controversies. The government maintains that its requests for access aren’t unreasonable, nor unprecedented. There are individuals that do pose a threat to public safety that can be caught using these methods. However, this type of power is very easily misused.
Citations
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?pagewanted=1
