FBI pushes to eavesdrop on Internet
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing an FBI plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has argued that the bureau’s ability to carry out court-approved eavesdropping on suspects is “going dark” as communications technology evolves.
Since 2010, he has pushed for a legal mandate requiring companies such as Facebook and Google to build into their instant-messaging and other such systems a capacity to comply with wiretap orders. That proposal, however, bogged down inside the administration amid concerns by other agencies, including the Commerce Department, about quashing Silicon Valley innovation. Fining offenders
While the FBI’s original proposal would have required Internet communications services to build in a wiretapping capacity, the revised one, which must now be reviewed by White House officials, focuses on fining companies that do not comply with a wiretap order.
The difference, officials say, means startups with few users would be freer to experiment without worrying about wiretapping issues unless they become popular enough to come to the Justice Department’s attention.
Still, the plan is likely to set off a debate over the future of the Internet if the White House submits it to Congress, according to lawyers for technology companies and advocates of Internet privacy and freedom.
“I think the FBI’s proposal would render Internet communications less secure and more vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves,” said Gregory Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology. “It would also mean that innovators who want to avoid new and expensive mandates will take their innovations abroad and develop them there, where there aren’t the same mandates.”
Andrew Weissmann, the general counsel of the FBI, said that the proposal was aimed only at preserving law enforcement officials’ long-standing ability to investigate suspected criminals, spies, and terrorists subject to a court’s permission. Need a court order
“This doesn’t create any new legal surveillance authority,” he said. “This always requires a court order.”
The new proposal focuses on strengthening wiretap orders issued by judges.
Currently, such orders instruct recipients to provide technical assistance to law enforcement agencies, leaving wiggle room for firms to say they tried but couldn’t make the technology work.