The new laws would give the
FBI
wide ranging new
powers to demand access to information on what
US
citizens are doing online. As well as expanding surveillance to
instant messaging systems and making it compulsory for
ISPs to
upgrade systems to make them tap-able, the law would relieve the
Justice Department of the requirement to publish the number of
interceptions it has made each year.
The new laws are due to be proposed by Mike DeWine, a Republican
senator for Ohio, sources told CNet. They come in the form of
amendments to the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act.
Universities and libraries are already objecting to a previous
extension to this Act. It had been expanded by the Federal
Communications Commission (
FCC
) to regulate broadband
providers but the Association of American Universities and the
American Library Association, amongst other organisations, have
objected.
They claim that the
FCC
does not have the authority
to expand the law's scope, and that their plans exceed what
Congress had ordered. They lost a court appeal last month but hope
to continue the case.
The
FBI
's proposed extension will demand that
telecommunications providers upgrade their hardware so that it
offers internet wiretapping. They are already required to do this
for voice calls but not yet for internet traffic.
