Monday, September 27, 2010

Feds seek to make it easier to eavesdrop on the internet

According to this article from today's New York Times, the Obama administration is continuing in the footsteps of its predecessors in making the 4th Amendment obsolete. As more and more people eschew the regular telephone and turn to cell phones and the internet to communicate, los federales are seeking legislation to mandate providers to create "backdoors" in the encryption programs to allow the government to snoop about.

This comes on the heels of the efforts by Dubai and India to force RIM to allow those governments to intercept encrypted messages sent over its proprietary network.

Of course the FBI and other law enforcement hold up their hands and say there is no reason to be alarmed -- we just need to be able to execute wiretap orders signed by judges. Spy agencies are a tad more honest saying they need the legislation in order to conduct surveillance on anyone with the audacity to oppose the government.

You can put me firmly on the side of greater liberty and freedom -- even if that clashes with the perceived "need" for more and more order. If we keep giving into these demands to cede more and more of our privacy rights, we're going to wake up one morning and realize we have no reasonable expectation of privacy at all.

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