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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Proposal Would Allow Non-Warrant FBI Access To Online Activity Records |
| 2010-07-29 |
| The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation. The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the "content" of e-mail or other Internet communication. Many people used web mail. Are they saying that they will require web mail providers to to save access information about every email? What if you run your own mail server. How are they going to make me provide such data? I get spam so bad my mail server logs, all of them, roll over every week. Is the requirement going to be that every mail server must provide logs sorted by recipient? Dating back how far? One year? Five years? If it's five years I would have to save data totaling well over four gigabytes. But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters. These missives, which can be issued by an FBI field office on its own authority, require the recipient to provide the requested information and to keep the request secret. They are the mechanism the government would use to obtain the electronic records. Stewart A. Baker, a former senior Bush administration Homeland Security official, said the proposed change would broaden the bureau's authority. "It'll be faster and easier to get the data," said Baker, who practices national security and surveillance law. "And for some Internet providers, it'll mean giving a lot more information to the FBI in response to an NSL." That the administration even made the request shows just how obtuse they are regarding technical data. Would an average FBI technician even know how to scan server logs? What they are looking for? Do they have even an inkling of how long even with today's powerful processors to scan four gigabytes of simple text even with simple tools such as cat and grep? Many Internet service providers have resisted the government's demands to turn over electronic records, arguing that surveillance law as written does not allow them to do so, industry lawyers say. One senior administration government official, who would discuss the proposed change only on condition of anonymity, countered that "most" Internet or e-mail providers do turn over such data. To critics, the move is another example of an administration retreating from campaign pledges to enhance civil liberties in relation to national security. The proposal is "incredibly bold, given the amount of electronic data the government is already getting," said Michelle Richardson, American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel. The critics say its effect would be to greatly expand the amount and type of personal data the government can obtain without a court order. "You're bringing a big category of data -- records reflecting who someone is communicating with in the digital world, Web browsing history and potentially location information -- outside of judicial review," said Michael Sussmann, a Justice Department lawyer under President Bill Clinton who now represents Internet and other firms. How about first repealing "anti-terrorism" laws that currently are used 99%+ for non-terrorism-related, ordinary investigations? Ordinary investigations that lack probable cause, based solely on "police voyeurism". Seriously, how hard is it to first have to have a reason before prowling through someone's underwear drawer? Hey, they are welcome to my mail logs, five years of them if they want. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #1 Would an average FBI technician even know how to scan server logs? The FBI has, or certainly can have, software to analyze log data for patterns of interest. These would use data mining algorithms and social network representation, at a guess. What they are looking for? Calling patterns (who calls whom, when), social networks (who's indirectly linked to whom via which third parties) and changes in patterns ahead of operations (op tempo is reflected in increased call frequency, followed sometimes by going silent just before an op). None of these require access to the body of the email, just the header info. Do they have even an inkling of how long even with today's powerful processors to scan four gigabytes of simple text even with simple tools such as cat and grep? At least some of the software they use - or could use - is significantly more sophisticated than cat and grep. Many machine learning / data mining algorithms execute very fast after the more time consuming step of training them. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-07-29 20:43 |