by Ian Mosley

Everyone’s going paperless these days–banks, utilities, newspapers…. everyone’s doing it all online. Now federal police agencies want to take it a step further–paperless warrants (or rather “requests” to your ISP) to spy on your Internet activity.

An [1] article on CNET reports: “Anyone with an e-mail account likely knows that police can peek inside it if they have a paper search warrant. But cybercrime investigators are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing companies these documents. They’re pushing for the creation of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received electronically. CNET has reviewed a survey scheduled to be released at a federal task force meeting on Thursday, which says that law enforcement agencies are virtually unanimous in calling for such an interface to be created. Eighty-nine percent of police surveyed, it says, want to be able to exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process through an encrypted, police-only nationwide computer network. The survey, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, is part of a broader push from law enforcement agencies to alter the ground rules of online investigations.”

For “alter the ground rules” read “re-shred the remaining bits of the Constitution left over from the Bush administration”.

The [2] article notes “Other components include renewed calls for laws requiring Internet companies to store data about their users for up to five years and increased pressure on companies to respond to police inquiries in hours instead of days. But the most controversial element is probably the private Web interface, which raises novel security and privacy concerns, especially in the wake of a recent inspector general’s report from the Justice Department. The 289-page report detailed how the FBI obtained Americans’ telephone records by citing nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing phone numbers on a sticky note rather than following procedures required by law. Some companies already have police-only Web interfaces. Sprint Nextel operates what it calls the L-Site, also known as the legal compliance secure Web portal. The company even has offered a course that will teach you how to create and track legal demands through L-site. Learn to navigate and securely download requested records. Cox Communications makes its price list for complying with police requests public; a 30-day wiretap is $3,500.”

Big Brother is apparently good for business. You might want to think twice about Sprint/Nextel, they may literally sell you out.

When they wanted to legalize infanticide on demand via abortion, the liberal Supreme Court had no difficulty discovering a non-existent “right to privacy” in the Constitution, but now apparently that particular right to privacy has disappeared.

The problem is that the dodgy application of loose Constitutional principles and end runs around people’s rights in the name of nailing criminals can all too easily be shifted to oppressing political dissent. The two-party system is getting less and less popular and both the Dems and Republicans would love to know in advance what any rival third parties were planning.

The two-pary system is afraid of the Internet and has been trying for the past 15 years to find some way to control it, beginning with then Jewish Rep. Charles Schumer’s 1996 attempt to pass a law banning “meretricious speculation and baseless conspiracy theories about government” after the Oklahoma City bombing. This is the latest in that series of attempts to monitor and restrict what you can say and how you can say it on the Internet. These people will continue to work against our interests and freedom until we finally remove them from power.