Behind closed doors in Washington, American officials are shaping an overhaul of the 1994 federal statute that requires phone and broadband carriers to ensure their networks can be wiretapped.
Related a.. Times Topic: Wiretapping and Other Eavesdropping Devices and Methods Based on a chilling recent precedent, the risk is substantial that this so-called technical updating will spread far beyond what's said to be contemplated - and greatly expand the already expansive power of the government to spy on Americans. Congress should be especially cautious about the scope of the revision. The precedent is the 2008 amendment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. While it also needed updating to keep pace with technology, the Bush administration added measures that sanctioned spying without a warrant, without suspicion, and without court approval. Retroactively, it gave legal cover to more than five years of the administration's illegal spying. Congress turned those provisions into law. The Obama administration has no similar tracks to cover, but the risks of executive overreach are still there. It's essential for Congress to be deliberate about providing a check on the executive branch and striking a balance with other American interests. In September, The Times reported that officials were "preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet," so that all communications services - e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook, peer-to-peer providers like Skype - will be able to comply with a wiretap order as online communications increasingly replace phone calls. Last month, The Times reported that it's not just new technologies that officials are focusing on, it's those already covered by the 16-year-old law, like phone and broadband carriers, because they "have begun new services and made system upgrades that caused technical problems for surveillance." The government's contention is that it seeks only to maintain its ability to conduct surveillance so that it can engage in legitimate spying via new technologies with the same proficiency that it can via old ones. If the goal were as straightforward as that, it would be difficult to challenge. Despite its abuses, wiretapping has long been accepted as a tool of law enforcement when used properly. The problem is that the hub-and-spoke design of phone and broadband communication is very different from the decentralized design of the Internet - and even more so from peer-to-peer connections. If, as some experts say, requiring Internet providers to be able to unscramble encrypted messages or intercept any transmitted communication also calls for them to function like centralized carriers, the shift will reverse what made the Internet - and made it a fount of economic growth. The huge scale of the potential disruption underscores how little we know about why this overhaul is needed. Officials have recounted how some carriers have been unable to carry out wiretap orders and how the F.B.I. has spent tens of millions of dollars to help fix the problems. But there is no public data about how often a communication service's technical makeup thwarts surveillance approved by a court. Congress must understand why these changes are so pressing before it considers the likely major new legal requirements needed to ensure that new technologies can be wiretapped. A version of this editorial appeared in print on November 3, 2010, on page A26 of the New York edition. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
