The FBI is asking social media sites and email providers to create a portal for investigators to access potential suspects online activity in an effort to thwart crime. The federal agency argues that, given the increased dependence on the internet and web services, their court-approved wiretaps are less useful now because fewer people use the phone to make their criminal plans.
At what many civil liberties experts will likely deem a threat to personal privacy and the proprietary information of the privately-owned businesses like Facebook and Skype, the agency is now pushing for a new law to force such companies to help them in their investigations.
CNET obtained a letter from the FBI’s general counsel’s office which will force companies that provide internet messaging or email services to change their code so that they have a portal for the FBI to log into quickly once approved to wiretap a would-be criminal.
The proposed law would change the existing Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which was created in 1994 and, as a result, focuses solely on telecommunications companies and not web companies.
If the changes go into effect, lawyers with expertise in technology say that the companies would likely require certain provisions before anything became law.
‘Industry would like to see any new legislation include some protections against disclosure of any trade secrets or other confidential information that might be shared with law enforcement, so that they are not released, for example, during open court proceedings,’ Roszel Thomsen told CNET.
This is just the latest in the FBI’s attempts to curtail an ongoing issue.
The problem, which insiders have deemed ‘Going Dark’, is what faces the FBI when their surveillance abilities are lessened as technology continues to diversify.
Valerie Caproni, the FBI general counsel in February of last year when the issue was initially raised, said that the advancement of technology and limits of their purview have left the agency ‘increasingly unable’ to gather information on their suspects.
Though the first formal meetings were held between FBI representatives and government officials in June 2008, no specific legislation has been put up for a vote yet, and some experts do not expect that to change anytime soon.
Given the election-season scrutiny of any and all actions by the Obama administration, they are extremely unlikely to put forth new measurements that would cause a potential debate over civil liberties.
