In a local news article (
http://www.kcrg.com/article.aspx?art_id=98311&cat_id=123 ), it sounds like it's a done deal that the FBI will monitor all email at the University of Iowa:
The FCC recently expanded a ruling that allows the FBI to wiretap phones.
Now it includes e-mails and instant messaging.
The FBI needs a warrant to search your e-mail.
They go to your internet provider and get what they need.
[snip]
At the University of Iowa, when you click send your e-mail travels through cords to a room filled with servers.
The FBI wants to stop e-mails when they get to the server room before they hit the internet.
UI Chief Information Officer said, "The law enforcement agency would like to capture the traffic that comes over the wire and then automatically route it to their facility so they can do the monitoring."
[snip]
But the feds have legally tapped phones for a decade.
This is just an expansion of the law and it is a costly one for UI.
[end article quotes]
But how can this be allowed? Forget the costliness - what about privacy? Sure, the FBI's been tapping phones for years, but does it tap EVERY phone? Surely not. Yet if this system is put in place, it will be the equivalent of tapping every single phone 24/7.
I don't know enough about this issue, but the article makes it sound as though the University of Iowa is going along with the plan, which I find appalling. If centers of learning don't put up a fight, then Big Brother has really arrived.