[FYI] (Fwd) FC: FBI requires ISPs to permit easy surveillance; EFF f

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Thu, 18 Oct 2001 13:54:07 -0700
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: FBI requires ISPs to permit easy surveillance; EFF founder
 	agrees
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

[Obviously I'm not saying that Mitch Kapor, who co-founded EFF, is
speaking for EFF. He's no longer on the board and has been pretty
silent on civil liberty issues since the mid-1990s. But it is
nevertheless disappointing to see an early voice for online liberty
appearing -- according to the below report, at least -- to have
abandoned principles for expediency. --Declan]

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National Journal's Technology Daily

PM Edition

October 16, 2001

HEADLINE: PRIVACY: FBI To Require ISPs To Reconfigure E-mail Systems

PHOENIX -- The FBI is in the process of finalizing technical
guidelines that would require all Internet service providers (ISPS) to
reconfigure their e-mail systems so they could be more easily
accessible to law enforcers. The move, to be completed over the next
two months, would cause ISPs to act as phone companies do to comply
with a 1994 digital-wiretapping law. "They are in the process of
developing a very detailed set of standards for how to make packet
data" available to the FBI, said Stewart Baker, an attorney at Steptoe
& Johnson who was formerly the chief counsel to the National Security
Agency (NSA).

The proposal is not a part of the anti-terrorism legislation currently
before Congress because the agency is expected to argue that the
Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) already
grants it the authority to impose the requirement, Baker said. He
added that some ISPs already meet the requirements.

Baker, who frequently represents Internet companies being asked to
conduct electronic surveillance for the FBI, made the revelation
Tuesday in a panel discussion at the Agenda 2002 conference here on
how the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are likely to affect the technology
industry and civil liberties. He elaborated on the plan in an
interview.

[...]

Mitchell Kapor, chairman of the Open Source Application Foundation and
a founder of Lotus Development, also spoke on the panel. Kapor also
started the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and has been a vocal
advocate of Internet privacy. EFF played a significant role in the
CALEA debate, and divisions over whether to support that law led to a
split of the organization. [...] "I find myself more in the middle
than I used to because my identity in life is not as a civil liberties
advocate," Kapor said. "Part is being an American and a world
citizen." [...]

Kapor and Baker shared more common ground on the acceptability of new
electronic surveillance than they had in the past, with both
expressing the view that now is a time for calm reconsideration of
positions rather than butting horns over the details of how civil
liberties would be curtailed by an anti-terrorism bill.

[...]




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