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FBI: We Need Wiretap-Ready Web Sites — Now
TheGift73 writes with news that the FBI is pushing a proposal to update old wiretap legislation so that modern web firms would be forced to build in backdoors to facilitate government surveillance. Quoting CNET:
"In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned. The FBI general counsel's office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly. ... The FBI's proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers, not Web companies. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband networks."
GoodBye Freedom! Hello FBI!
If it's to fight terrorism then I'm all for it but if it's to fight "drugs" and "crime" then I'm totally against it.
I'm only for it if it's FOR THE CHILDREN!
There's nothing in the Constitution that says we have to make invading our privacy easier on them. Already we are facing all our car's movements being trackable and now they want to make sure every form of communication is easily accessible. At what point does unreasonable search and seizure kick in? This almost ties into the TSA story. The Supreme Court needs to define "Unreasonable search and seizure" since the government seems to think ALL search and seizure is reasonable. Need I bring up drug forfeiture? You can take a tourist on a day fishing trip and if he has a brick of cocaine with him they seize your boat and the government feels that's reasonable even when you had no way to know without illegally searching your customer.
I worked on CALEA and even for that, smaller telecoms were able to get exempted from this in-theory. I say in theory because even in areas of Alaska that only served 4000 people we submitted estimates for over $400K to update them and the FBI paid for it (shhh - don't tell any one - I did sign a NDA)...that aside, smaller sites can't possible be forced to pay for this and if you do, take a note from the CALEA play book - estimate very high and make a lot of proift.
We wanted our VOIP services to be free of CALEA backdoors, so we based ourselves in Luxembourg, where they do not have such regulations, and are not likely to have them anytime soon.
Coward! Stay and fight!
Ive had reasons to dislike this government since I started thiking for myself. You think I am going to let them threaten me away from my familial homeland? Fuck them....stay here and be the resistance!
There is a third choice. When they ask immediately shut down the servers and replace them with a static page that tells your users why, along with contact information for the agents who gave the order. Then, tell them to fuck off and die. They can't jail you for refusing to provide back-door access to a service that no longer exists.
It only takes one big service the size of GMail doing that before riots break out.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I know this is going to sound over-the-top, but there's a scary notion in there.
In a world where warrants are an arcane idea from the distant past, and snatch-and-grab detention of US citizens without justification or trial is entirely legal, words like "resisting" or "taking-a-stand" could have some pretty serious consequences.
I'm not saying you shouldn't, or that you'll necessarily get black-bagged, but do appreciate what you're risking.
Not resisting and/or taking a stand also have serious consequences in a world where people who resist can be 'black-bagged'. When no one fights back, the oppressor just gets bolder and the oppression more universal.
If the government will black back you for fighting back, then you had every right and perhaps even a patriotic duty to fight.
If a person believes that their spouse will kill them if they leave, that's all the justification they need to leave. They have to take that chance, they have to leave and they have to fight back. Relenting or rolling over only guarantees you get hurt. Even if you die fighting back may at least stop them from hurting anyone else.
The same goes for the government. We're guaranteed to be oppressed if we stay quiet and do nothing. We may force them to reconsider if we fight back, if nothing every one of them we kill (yes, we're talking about killing them) is one more that can't hurt your neighbors, friends, family, enemies, people you have no connection to whatsoever, etc.
Fuck that. If the populace keeps electing people who pass these laws, then representative democracy is working as it should. You don't withdraw your support from a government by "resisting". You lawfully withdraw your support from a government by expatriating (paying any required exit taxes on your way out the door), and denying it the revenue stream from your future taxes.
The US has a very effective financial Berlin wall built around the country. American Citizens and Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) are taxed on the basis of their citizenship/residency, irrespective of where they live. Want to renounce your citizenship? Fine. You'll still be taxed for an additional 10 years.
Good luck "sticking it to the man" through emigration.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Ohh, I fully appreciate what I may be risking.
FUCK THEM. If we leave the US, another country will just start up with the same bullshit under the pretense they are providing security.
I will not code back doors into my system just so the FBI can watch me, and my clients, and their customers. If anything, it is forcing me and others to consider how we can become a "common carrier" for media. Plenty of data backup and data retention companies are embracing the paradigm of data being encrypted on the customer's premise and then stored redundantly in data centers. FBI demands a copy of my data from them? Go ahead. When you want the keys to decrypt it go to the customer and ask them.
It is an absolute violation of our privacy. I don't care if historically it had been easy to eavesdrop on citizens and alleged criminals because there was no security. Put bugs in their houses and actually do some footwork.
That is the problem. They have demonstrated beyond any doubt that they cannot be trusted with the power we have given them. Any doubt whatsoever.
They want backdoors? Fine. I'll give them a fucking front door and make it abundantly clear that I don't control the means of encryption. Customers do.
ZRTP, or endpoint-to-endpoint encryption will be the future of communications. Only in very specific applications do you need servers in the media path, and even then, you don't necessarily need plain audio. You can access functions and features available with out-of-band signalling that does not rely on the more traditional in-band signalling of touch tones in the past.
Those bitches in the FBI can bring it on.
Of course the logical conclusion is that the FBI will say that key escrow is required to provide safety and security to Americans. At that point I say let the bloody revolution begin.