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Obama Working on Plan to Wiretap Skype, Facebook, BlackBerrys
Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Obama administration wants to force all communications companies to make their networks compliable with wiretapping orders from law enforcement, a change that would primarily affect the likes of Facebook, Skype, BlackBerrys and similar encrypted systems.

Phone and broadband companies already are required under the 1994 Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act to ensure their operations can allow for eavesdropping by police and federal agents. But more recent communications like BlackBerrys, which encrypt emails, make it difficult for the government to intercept messages that may involve terrorist plots.

The White House has been working with the FBI, the Department of Justice and the National Security Agency to develop a plan that would be submitted to Congress sometime next year.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

U.S. Tries to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet (by Charlie Savage, New York Times)

Comments

Free Mason Man - 2/11/2012 8:30:41 PM
@legend...free masons are not your problem, but i agree with criticisms on obama and republicans likewise. the free masons want to keep civil liberties and freedoms. unfortunately you've been reading too much david icke crap.

Den - 10/9/2010 8:44:30 PM
Correction: The Feds are not Planning to Wiretap Skype, Facebook, BlackBerrys... they already do that. What they are planning to do is "legitimize" such wiretapping. There are no secure communications in America. Wake Up!

Henrique - 10/5/2010 8:57:56 PM
We need security, people, comprehend! Guys with turbants want to destroy our culture so we need to get rid of it right away not to be attacked!!! Privacy is for CRIMINALS!!! I want to share everything with the world, and since I'm an upright citizen and a kind-hearted person, I have nothing to fear. Brave New World!

legend - 10/1/2010 11:46:44 AM
Obama is a primary facilitator for the New World Order-the freemasons- who seek to impose masonic law on America. They are not about anyone's freedom but their own. They have their own internal courts, their own schools, their own leadership, their own communities for retirement. Obama and his shills alternately run under democrat tickets, then republican, then democrat again. Take a good look at how many freemasons run for office for BOTH parties, and you see how they attempt to control all society. Obama shall be remembered not for change, but for staying the George Bush course on FISA and Secret Searches under the Patriot Act guidelines, for staying the course in one war and starting another, which has now expanded to Pakistan, just like Cambodia and Laos during Vietnam, for staying the course on Renditions and not prosecuting Bush and Cheney under the War Crimes governances. Worse yet, Palin is a tea party shill for the worst of the rRepublicans who are farther right on all of Bush's policies. Vote for them at your peril. Vote for folks who are not aligned. Then you can figure them as at least LESS CORRUPTED then the others like Obama, et al.

LoneWolf - 9/29/2010 1:20:29 PM
Facebook and all the social networks people create are one of the primary portals used by the NSA and spook orgs for years. The funding for FB orginated out of shadow government: Do You Trust Facebook? http://www.wimp.com/badinfo/ When I worked for the City of Houston, they tracked all of our blackberrys 24/7 in a real time mapping system. Pathetic manager leaked his control mentality when I got reprimanded for going beyond 5 miles of downtown for lunch and when I left it in my backpack at my desk.

Silverman - 9/29/2010 11:34:23 AM
Its very disappointing that Obama is continuing with the wire-taping policies of Bush: http://sherrytalksback.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/and-then-they-came-for-my-blackberry/

David Sugar - 9/29/2010 9:54:28 AM
“Privacy is ultimately about liberty while surveillance is always about control” Speaking on behalf of the GNU Telephony project, we do intend to openly defy such a law should it actually come to pass, so I want to be very clear on this statement. It is not simply that we will choose to publicly defy the imposition of such an illegitimate law, but that we will explicitly continue to publicly develop and distribute free software (that is software that offers the freedom to use, inspect, and modify) enabling secure peer-to-peer communication privacy through encryption that is made available directly to anyone worldwide. Clearly such software is especially needed in those places, such as in the United States, where basic human freedoms and dignity seem most threatened. In the United States the 4th amendment did not come about simply because it was impractical to directly spy on everyone on such a large scale. Nor does it end simply because it may now be technically feasible to do so. Communication privacy furthermore is essential to the normal functioning of free societies, whether speaking of whistle-blowers, journalists who have to protect their sources, human rights and peace activists engaging in legitimate political dissent, workers engaged in union organizing, or lawyers who must protect the confidentiality of their privileged communications with clients. However, to fully appreciate the effect of such surveillance on human societies, imagine being among several hundred million people who wake up each day having to prove they are not a “terrorist” by whatever arbitrary means the government has decided to both define the terms of such a crime and whatever arbitrary methods unknown to you that they might choose to define you as such, and where even your prosecution is carried out under the immunity of “state secrets” that all police states use to abuse of their own citizens. Such a society is one who’s very foundation is built on the premise of everyone being guilty until proven innocent and where due process does not exist. It is the imposition of such a illegitimate society that we choose to openly oppose, and to do so in this manner. David Alexander Sugar Chief Facilitator GNU Telephony