Privacy Advocates Decry Anti-Crime Proposals for Internet Wiretaps, Bank Disclosures
Privacy and Internet advocates are raising concerns about new crime-fighting proposals by the Obama administration designed to make it easier to wiretap electronic communications and review banking transfers, no matter how small.
The New York Times has the story on the wiretap proposals, while the Washington Post reports on the proposed banking regulations.
According to the Times, the Obama administration plans to introduce a bill that would require technologies that transmit encrypted communications—from Facebook to Skype to BlackBerry—to be technically capable of complying with wiretap orders.
The White House contends new Internet regulations are needed because the government’s ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is waning in the Internet age, the New York Times reports. A 1994 law called the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act requires phone and broadband networks to have interception capabilities, but the act doesn’t apply to communications service providers.
According to the story, the proposed law would likely require communications services that encrypt messages to be capable of unscrambling them, and peer-to-peer software developers to redesign their services to allow interception.
James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told the Times that the proposal challenges the decentralized design of the Internet and has “huge implications.”
Meanwhile, the United States is advancing another proposal designed to fight crime and terrorism, this one targeting banks. A proposed new Treasury regulation would require U.S. banks to report all electronic money transfers, not just those above $10,000, the Washington Post says.
Peter Djinis, a lawyer who advises financial institutions, was among those objecting to the plan. “Consider me old-fashioned,” he told the Post, “but I believe you need to show some evidence of criminality before you are granted unfettered access to the private financial affairs of every individual and company that dares to conduct financial transactions overseas.”
