FBI access to e-mail and Web records raises fears

Article

WASHINGTON – Invasion of privacy in the Internet age. Expanding the reach of law enforcement to snoop on e-mail traffic or on Web surfing. Those are among the criticisms being aimed at the FBI as it tries to update a key surveillance law.

With its proposed amendment, is the Obama administration merely clarifying a statute or expanding it? Only time and a suddenly on guard Congress will tell.

Federal law requires communications providers to produce records in counterintelligence investigations to the FBI, which doesn't need a judge's approval and court order to get them.

They can be obtained merely with the signature of a special agent in charge of any FBI field office and there is no need even for a suspicion of wrongdoing, merely that the records would be relevant in a counterintelligence or counterterrorism investigation. The person whose records the government wants doesn't even need to be a suspect.

The administration's proposal to change the Electronic Communications Privacy Act "raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns," Leahy said Thursday in a statement.

Im sure most of us on ATS already know about this, but I thought I would post this just to put it out there.

It looks like, once again, they are trying to expand more into peoples lives. No need for warrants or judge's approvals. What are they going to do this time?

Updating a key survellience law? I hope it dosent mean giving them more power. We already have plenty of that.....

They are really ramping things up on the crackdown of internet traffic.

Patriot Act opens the door, Homegrown Terrorism becomes a key buzz phrase, passive GPS tracking of every mobile digital device, Obama gets a Kill Switch for the internet, Blogger software gets shut down, Recorded Futures goes live...now warrantless confiscation of internet traffic without cause or suspicion.

Where does it end? Oh yeah, thats right...with Martial Law of land, sea and cable, and a Socialist Dictatorship of the US at large.

I guess I need to go sign up for my tracking implant and "mark of the beast" so that I can post stupidity on my Facebook account.

I used to like the USSA mantra, but this is more like the Peoples Republic of America.

reply to post by buni11687


To honest all your internet information can already be accessed via the Echelon system that's run jointly by the American NSA and British GCHQ and I'm pretty sure the FBI could simply contact them for an information request.

I tend to believe all this media attention they are trickling through to the public is an attempt to convince people they can now access our personal information legally when in fact they have had access to it illegally for years.

The scary part is the fact that if Echelon is as extensive and powerful as rumors lead many to believe then it this post will be tagged and reviewed by an operator pretty soon after I hit the "reply" button...

The only reason they are checking out peoples surfing habbits is to give them an excuse to look at porn.

FBI Agent 1-
"I think we have a domestic terrorist on our hands, look at all that porn this guy is watching".
FBI Agent 2-
"wait a minute, rewind that again for me, maybe there is something in these pornos that we have to look out for, maybe they are communicating to each other via Vagina"
FBI Agent 3-
"Oh, this has to be stopped".
FBI Agent2-
"Have any of the Muslim nations got a hold of any of these films yet?"
FBI Agent 1-
"Not that I know of, I will continue on searching through these videos until I can find something that looks good, I mean until I find something that sticks out, I mean..damn WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!?"
FBI Agent 3-
"They only learn those moves in terrorist training facilities, lets go get em"
FBI Agent 1-
"Ok, just give me a minute".


edit-sp

[edit on 30-7-2010 by Common Good]

Originally posted by Common Good
The only reason they are checking out peoples surfing habbits is to give them an excuse to look at porn.

FBI Agent 1-
"I think we have a domestic terrorist on our hands, look at all that porn this guy is watching".
FBI Agent 2-
"wait a minute, rewing that again for me, maybe there is something in these pornos that we have to look out for, maybe they are communicating to each other via Vagina"
FBI Agent 3-
"Oh, this has to be stopped".
FBI Agent2-
"Have any of the Muslim nations got a hold of any of these films yet?"
FBI Agent 1-
"Not that I know of, I will continue on searching through these videos until I can find something that looks good, I mean until I find something that sticks out, I mean..damn WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT!?"
FBI Agent 3-
"They only learn those moves in terrorist training facilities, lets go get em"
FBI Agent 1-
"Ok, just give me a minute".

Haha , bravo!!!

It does make you wonder though some of the crazy # they would see in peoples surfing habits, if someone went through my browsing history they would think I was a maniac!

The internet is extremely threatening their plans and they do seem to be pushing harder and harder for more control over net traffic. The only laws these POS pass are ones that will benefit them and not the populace, they make that pretty clear on a daily basis anymore..and the more threatened they feel the more frantic they scramble to regain controls..which means drastic measures going into action the more they feel they are losing.
Thanks for the post OP, and yeah im sure many here have been following what has been taking place in the internet laws, and the restrictions the PTB are trying to put on it, but it never hurts to put out information such as this, especially if it gets to people that havent paid attention to the issue before

The US Gov is trying to play God !!!
Just like the movie "Minority Report"
they want to know in advance before
anything happens so they can prevent
it. Sad thing is, they are taking away
our rights in the process. That's not freedom.

Now you have to ask yourself a question:
Are they doing it strictly to prevent crimes?
or was it their intention all along to burn
the US Constitution?

In my opinion it is the latter.

reply to post by Death_Kron


Yea, I guess we are all guilty of having a dual personality when it comes to the internet, but that is the whole point. If they really wanted toprosecute people for being 'internet terrorists", they wouldprobably have tolock up at least 90 percent of the people in this nation. For what? expressing their views? Last time I checked, we were granted that right by the constitution. They are only mad because they can no longer control peoples thinking, and that is what scares them the most, they are losing control because thepeople are getting smarter and going straight to the source instead of getting ripped off by the middle man, and thats what our Government is, The middle man. Always trying to get n extra buck off of a service that should already be granted to the people of a free state. People are no longer vesting in their services, and now they are running out of negotiation room.

I am NOT worried about these suckers finding out my surfing habbitts. If they want to know so badly, I will tell them. Hell I will do it right now.
-I like to watch movies online instead of paying to watch their social programming.
- On lonely nights I like to surround myself in a dark room bathed in baby oil watching two fat lesbians go at it like they just won the food lottery.
- I like to check out websites that offer unbiased reviews of corrupted officials so I am better equipped with the knowledge of what THOSE SUCKERS are really up to.
- I like to browse producer websites because they offer me services that I use in my day to day rituals of music making.
- I like to come on Above Top Secret almost religiously because this site give me all the information I need to stay one step ahead of everyone else. Also so I can put in my two cents on the political affairs that are going on in this country.
- I also like watching videos on YouTube of people doing stupid S@#@.
-I like to come online so I can take stupid polls to make me feel better about myself.
- I like to come online to watch videos of how to grow produce in the SHTF scenerios (that these bastards who are trying to see what I am doing) created.
-I like to come online, because ift gives me an avenue to express to others what I have a hard time doing in real life for their lack of care or just plain out ignorance(I find that if it is all written down, they have a better reason to not dismiss it rather than call me crazy and make me feel like I am a nutjob for even thinking such things) so I can point them to the sources of MY information that I recieved from someone else so that THEY can check on it themselves ONLINE.

If they want to know more, all they have to do is give me a call. I will be more than happy to tell them what kind of toilet paper I wipe my butt with as well.

What I WONT ALLOW... Is for them to take away everything that I have invested on here, just so they feel better about taking over the world and other peoples lives, knowing we are not there to give our opinion. I will not let them force me to be ignorant. They will be damned if they try to do this.

We are not the enemy, we are the gate keepers.

reply to post by Common Good


I agree with everything your saying to be honest, I mean personally I'd say my online personality quite closely echo's my personality in real life; I'm a curious person who likes to learn and as such will spend hours on Google or Wikipedia looking at such a massive scope of subjects be it Chinese philosophy or the different types of sandwiches there are in the world.

As you said I'd would also happily tell the government what I search and use the internet for, the problem I have is I don't like the infringement of my personal privacy in the sense that someone is looking at my surfing habits without my permission.

It's a difficult subject because I'm not sure anyone would argue if the government prevented a massive terrorist attacks by foiling a plan through the intercept of internet data but you have to ask yourself how many terrorists are actually using the web to communicate?

I know that the government said that the 9/11 terrorists used forms of electronic stenography to communicate but seriously Osama Bin Laden hasn't been found and people believe he was living in caves! Hardly high-tech internet terrorism...

The problem is that people, especially criminals, are stupid. They would send an email to one of their mates detailing a crime or a planned future crime, if this information could be obtained by the authorities and used to prevent a crime occurring then not many people would argue.

At the end of the day the average citizen doesn't actually realize the massive electronic paper trail they leave behind them. Being caught on CCTV camera's (more here in the UK than any other country in Europe), mobile phone call and SMS messages all logged and stored, Emails, Internet spy ware, ATM withdrawals logged, Credit or debit card transactions being logged etc etc

It goes on and on, so at the end of the day the authorities already know an absolutely massive amount about everyone so I'm not sure if extending that to include phone call and email data is that much of a big deal.

Doesn't make me happy about it though...

S&F. These criminal scum won't be happy until they have 24/7 capabilities to watch each one of us slaves to make sure that we aren't plotting against them or talking of real freedom.

This won't end until we crush the elitist scum and take our world back. That's what it boils down to.

S&F

reply to post by Death_Kron


Yea thats what scares me the most, the fact that they can go through YOUR INFORMATION without warrant or permission from said user/person. ::shudders:::

If they are allowed to do that, then we should be allowed to have open and transparant government. I think people forget to realize that We The People, are responsible for keeping THEM in check, but they(politicians) do such a good job of keeping it the other way around, that people accept it as 'it is what it is'. Its our own damned faults for letting it happen.

Your statement on the terrorist groups..I agree with.
If they are going to do ANY kind of operations, the last thing they are going to do is post it up on the web when everyone knows damned well its being monitored. This would be the dumbest terrorist group that ever existed if that was the case. I think though they are just using these 'terrorists' as a platform to treat their own people the same way.

Maybe its not about the 'terrorists', maybe its really all just about controlling us, they are doing a fine job so far. They are trying to strip of us of all liberty, only to be answered to them, they have been playing us for a good while now, and I dont see an end to that comming anytime in the future unless WE the people do something about it(oh wait, I might just become a domestic terroist for that statement).

EVERY little right that they take away from us is a big deal. It all adds up after a while until the point of where we cant even take out the trash without a permission slip.


edit


[edit on 30-7-2010 by Common Good]

If you followed the leaking of 93,000 documents last week, one document detailed plans by the CIA to basically scare the Germans into continued support for the Afghanistan war, by threatening such things as more drugs, crime, terrorism and a threat to their standing in NATO if they didn't.

IMHO the world is currently completely f****d up.

We, the people, need to kick our governments and remind them who is boss.

[edit on 1-8-2010 by mirageofdeceit]

reply to post by mirageofdeceit


LOL it won't happen. People are too lazy and too worried about their lives to start a revolution of sorts. The only time they would care is when martial law is activated and they are forced to do things they don't want to.

I do think a revolution is brewing though.

I think that's why they are going after the obvious brilliant, revolutionary thinkers -

This weekend, it really bugged me that the more I read by Assange, the more his brilliance shown like a light in the dark.

Then, it was as if they turned their attention towards MIT's brightest hackers.

Maybe it is because these people have the power to show the emperor in his 'new clothes' to the public.

Maybe these people have the potential to be the founding fathers of the 2nd revolution - the Revolution of Information.

Maybe it's happening as we SPEAK across these distances, as we all learn and then take the truth OUT to other nodes of our reach of influence.

It might be a mistake to look for a revolution like was seen in France or in the start of the US. This revolution could simply reshape beliefs, and the chaos that is the danger - the war - might be not knowing what or who to believe anymore. When darkness develops like that, people look for the bright lights.

Our govt......well....they are intelligent and wiley but they aren't really all that bright and shining anymore, are they? They got lies to dent their surface and greed to dull their finish.