The US government is using an old FCC wiretap law to force hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet networks, “to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications, says the New York Times.

“The action, which the government says is intended to help catch terrorists and other criminals, has unleashed protests and the threat of lawsuits from universities, which argue that it will cost them at least $7 billion while doing little to apprehend lawbreakers,” it says. “Because the government would have to win court orders before undertaking surveillance, the universities are not raising civil liberties issues.

The order was issued by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in August and first published in the Federal Register last week, says the NYT. It extends the provisions of the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act which requires telephone carriers to engineer their switching systems at their own cost so that federal agents can obtain easy surveillance access.

Universities, libraries, airports providing wireless service and commercial ISPs, as well as to municipalities that provide Internet access to residents, are affected.

San Francisco is looking for free Wi-Fi with Google front and centre among companies wanting to provide it and one of the primary concerns is privacy.

“Justice Department officials, who declined to comment for this article, said in their written comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission that the new requirements were necessary to keep the 1994 law ‘viable in the face of the monumental shift of the telecommunications industry’ and to enable law enforcement to ‘accomplish its mission in the face of rapidly advancing technology’,” says the NYT, going on:

“The F.C.C. says it is considering whether to exempt educational institutions from some of the law’s provisions, but it has not granted an extension for compliance.

“Lawyers for the American Council on Education, the nation’s largest association of universities and colleges, are preparing to appeal the order before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Terry W. Hartle, a senior vice president of the council is quoted as saying.

Universities don’t “question the government’s right to use wiretaps to monitor terrorism or criminal suspects on college campuses,” Hartle said, “only the order’s rapid timetable for compliance and extraordinary cost”.

Technology experts retained by the schools estimated that it could cost universities at least $7 billion just to buy the Internet switches and routers necessary for compliance. That figure does not include installation or the costs of hiring and training staff to oversee the sophisticated circuitry around the clock, as the law requires, the experts said.

“This is the mother of all unfunded mandates,” Mr. Hartle said.

The story continues that if obtain a court order to monitor the Internet communications of someone at a university, the current approach is for law enforcement officials, “to work quietly with campus officials to single out specific sites and install the equipment needed to carry out the surveillance.” But the federal law would apply a high-tech approach, “enabling law enforcement to monitor communications at campuses from remote locations at the turn of a switch.”

“We keep asking the F.B.I., What is the problem you’re trying to solve?” - the New York Times has Center for Democracy and Technology executive director James X. Dempsey saying. “And they have never showed any problem with any university or any for-profit Internet access provider. The F.B.I. must demonstrate precisely why it wants to impose such an enormously disruptive and expensive burden.”
Via p2pnet.net