F.B.I. Seeks Wider Wiretap Law for Web

[cory777]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, traveled to Silicon Valley on Tuesday to meet with top executives of several technology firms about a proposal to make it easier to wiretap Internet users.

Mr. Mueller and the F.B.I.’s general counsel, Valerie Caproni, were scheduled to meet with senior managers of several major companies, including Google and Facebook, according to several people familiar with the discussions. How Mr. Mueller’s proposal was received was not clear.

“I can confirm that F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller is visiting Facebook during his trip to Silicon Valley,” said Andrew Noyes, Facebook’s public policy manager. Michael Kortan, an F.B.I. spokesman, acknowledged the meetings but did not elaborate.

Mr. Mueller wants to expand a 1994 law, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, to impose regulations on Internet companies.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/technology/17wiretap.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

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Your Activist News Source http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[midnight]

1. Why can't we use our tax dollars to feed and educate...

Why does so much money have to be spent sping and encarcerating.... That is so old world crap....

[redirish28]

2. This is scary.

[billymayshere]

3. 17 years six months to go

I'm leaving this country. I never thought 20 years ago I would do it but I see no alternative. This is quickly becoming a scary place to live. Fucking fascists ruined it.

[Ter]

7. OK, I'll bite

Why in 17 years, 6 months?

[Blandocyte]

8. Must be some Donnie Darko thing?

[Independem]

4. Google opted out of wiretap, when Yahoo and AT&T jumped on board.

Google opted out of wiretap, when Yahoo and AT&T and others jumped on board.

I Hear Ya: Bush Signs Expanded Wiretap Power into Law


Google, which receives most of its revenue from online advertising, does not create profiles of visitors. (Profiles include information such as a person's name, e-mail address, age, gender and other characteristics that can be matched with Web surfing habits to enable advertisers to better target their ads.) Google's senior privacy attorney, Jane Horvath, said at the hearing that the company does not keep profiles of the people who use its Google.com search engine, nor does the company record users' Web surfing habits for advertisers to use. She acknowledged, however, that Google may be straying from its original approach and is experimenting with a feature that would deliver ads to its users based on both the user's current query and a previous search.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=expanded-wiretap-law

[defendandprotect]

5. Geez ... Mueller is still head of the FBI???? Holy cow!!

[EFerrari]

6. I think his tenure is through the end of the year. n/t