Surveillance Access Is Emphasis Of Obama Web Plan
At first, the Obama web policy 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. The Obama administration, along with intelligence and regulation enforcement agencies, want even more monitoring powers online, which could be part of a brand new bill going before Congress sometime within the near future. The bill is not anywhere close to done. That said, the surveillance powers of the federal can be dramatically expanded if it does. Basically, it will mean that fewer means of communication will be beyond the all watching eye of Washington.
The Obama web plan
A bill will propose more accessibility for wiretap and surveillance purposes for intelligence and regulation enforcement officials, according to the New York Times. The Obama administration is behind the bill, which is due next year. The bill will mandate that all methods of communication be designed to allow federal monitoring. Some forms of digital communications are private and encrypted, while many others are not secret at all to the government.
Regulation is against boutique designers
The disadvantage to restrictions of this sort is that small independent shops have to work double time to keep up with mandates, whereas an already large business can easily comply. The recent ban of the Blackberry in several nations 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 surveillance needs of governments. Other companies, such as Skype and other voice over internet protocol or VOIP businesses could have to re-engineer their products to keep up as well. Law enforcement and intelligence officials have complained that their surveillance abilities are “going dark,” as fewer people rely totally on phone communications.
Ear towards the walls
There are few methods of communication, besides speaking in person, that aren’t subject to domestic monitoring. Obama has been mum about repealing some of the almost Orwellian laws that were part of Bush domestic spying controversies. There are legitimate threats to public safety that could be dealt with by this legislation, and the federal insists it isn’t overstepping its authority by asking for the access. A greater degree of surveillance may seem a good tool for catching criminals within the act, but can easily be misused.
Information from
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?pagewanted=1
