Until as recently as the 50s (if I've got my history correct) wire tapping phone calls without a warrant was not only perfectly legal - but actually supported by the courts.
And warrant less wire tapping is what this dairy is now about.
The government had successfully twisted the meaning of the Constitution so that unlawful search and seizures only applied to property - and phone calls aren't property.
Eventually the courts changed their minds, and correctly interpreted the Amendment as referring to people - not things. People are not to be the subject of unwarranted search and seizures - property is just a reference, an example if you will.
Now we face the same issue over free speech on the internet. The Government, and unfortunately by this I mean both sides of Congress, want internet providers to record your communications - without a warrant - and hand it over to the authorities whenever they ask. There will be no requirement for court oversight, there will be no protection of your Constitution rights.
This is an issue that has cropped up several times, but it is over the next year that we have to convince our representatives to fight this assault on freedom.
The assumption is that we're all potential pedophiles and terrorists. Therefore it's fine to record everything we do on the `net and hand it over to whatever authority requests they do so.
In fact they're so eager to shit on our Constitutional protections, the Government wants to make warrant less wire tapping of internet communications a requirement of the law.
If this law is enacted say goodbye to small, independent, internet providers. The only businesses that could afford the sort of data retention Hollywood uses to digitize old movies are the giant monopolists of the communications world.
The side effects of such a law - small, rural communities not having an internet provider due to the prohibitive costs is not something anyone (even Hillary Clinton, one of this law's backers) has thought of.
The other major side effect of this law - the one that certainly the NSA, Bush and Cheney are aware of - but apparently no one else?
VOIP (Voice Over IP) - or in layman's terms, the telephone technology of the future.
VOIP is still an infant in the big wide world of communications. However, despite the FTC trying desperately to force companies like Vonage to comply with existing wire tapping laws - so far nothing doing. Worse, for the government, if you and your family make use of free internet calling services, most of these operators are located in Europe, and therefore have no obligation to the FBI or the FTC.
How to kill two birds with one stone? Force internet providers to record your internet activity. You can fight this in the VOIP stakes with the appropriate encryption software, but of course this only applies to those that know how to use such software, i.e. not your average telephone user.
In any case your average telephone user of the future will either have phones that make this option unusable (due to the DCMA, which will make it illegal for anyone other than the phone's manufacturer to tamper with the operation of that telephone) or will just not be aware that such measures are necessary if they want to prevent the government from listening in on their calls.
Surely this is not allowed? Surely the existing rules about tapping phone calls apply?
Not really. You see several things stop these laws from being applicable.
The first is the same reason why the DHS can read your regular mail with impunity. Because you are using a third party to deliver your data (which is how the law views internet communications - not as a phone call or private message, but data) the law views this as giving up any reasonable expectation to privacy. It's not right, it should be changed, but that's how it stands right now.
Second - as I mentioned the law views these communications as data. Data is not protected in the same way as a phone call or even a letter. In this country you have absolutely no data protection whatsoever. This won't change for many reasons, all financial, one of which...
is this business of disclosing identity theft issues. What really should happen is laws should be enacted to prosecute businesses that don't apply strict privacy protections to people's data. Not a chance - this will cost money, so all they have to do is let you know when they've negligently allowed a third party to steal it.
A law protecting data as a private conversation might change this - so don't expect Congress to enact it.
Bottom line. We have to stop this sort of law from being enacted. The consequences are so far reaching it would effectively negate any need for wire tap warrants - and this future is not so far away as people think.
It's based on the assumption that YOU are a pedophile. It's based on the assumption that EVERY American is a potential terrorist. It is Big Brother at it's worst. It is government invading our privacy, it is a future we should be protecting our children from - a future without the Constitutional protections we hold so dear today.
It must be stopped.
For further reading on this issue :-
Industry, others object to data retention
Republican politico endorses data retention
DoJ pushes data retention on ISPs
Major Update
Qwest are now saying they do NOT support such measure, and CNET have posted this article on the issue.
Qwest on data retention laws: Oops
They are now saying that one of their lawyers ACCIDENTALLY endorsed the proposed federal legislation on this issue.
This doesn't change the premise that this legislation is wrong, and that it would provide authorities with the power to record VOIP phone calls - but as it stands now, Qwest are NOT supporters of this legislation. I've tried to re-edit this diary to remove any mention of support by Qwest - but if I've messed up and left something in, please ignore it.