U.S. Wants Broader Internet Wiretap Authority

The Obama administration is developing plans that would require all Internet-based communication services -- such as encrypted BlackBerry e-mail, Facebook, and Skype -- to be capable of complying with federal wiretap orders, according to a report published Monday.

National security officials and federal law enforcement argue their ability to eavesdrop on terror suspects is increasingly "going dark," The New York Times reported, as more communication takes place via Internet services, rather than by traditional telephone.

The bill, which the White House plans to deliver to Congress next year, would require communication service providers be technically capable of intercepting and decrypting messages, raising serious privacy concerns, the Times said.

> My keys are already big enough to survive the heat death of the universe.

Whoa. That's some key.

I only care if mine are long enough to outlast me and my daughter. She has her own keys...

I introduced her to PGP/GPG encryption when she was about 14 yrs old. You might think that was an act of questionable wisdom, but it has proven well-founded, since she shows good common sense for a teenager, and if she wants to keep secrets from her old man, well, that's part of being a teenager and I did it in the 60's without encryption...

Anything I've encrypted won't be an embarrassment by the time they figure out how to crack it. I'll be gone, and either she'll be gone, or she'll have re-encrypted it with something better by then.

With regard to private citizens' privacy with regard to legal activities, the government can kiss my patriotic ass. If they make private citizens' encryption illegal, well, that's been tried (see Phil Zimmerman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zimmerman), and if they try it again it'll be a lot harder than it was then.

Agreed. I'm extremely disappointed that I haven't been able to get more people to routinely use encryption than I have. The biggest problem is, people are lazy, even though we have great tools at our disposal. FWIW, I was a cypherpunk back when Phil was being harassed by Clinton cronys.

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