Order broadens surveillance of Internet users

[acmejack]

snip>
In a serious attack on democratic rights, the US government has greatly increased the scope of legislation introduced in 1994, regarding the electronic monitoring of telecommunications providers.

The legislation, known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) obliges telephone companies to make it possible for law enforcement agencies to intercept any phone conversations carried out over its networks, as well as making call records available. The act also stipulates that it must not be possible for a person to detect that his or her conversation is being monitored by the respective government agency.

An order issued by the Federal Communications Commission in August and first published in the Federal Register of October 13 extends the requirement of the 1994 legislation to cover broadband Internet access services, including wireless and voice-over-IP (VoIP) Internet telephony services.
snip>

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/calea-o26.shtml

[madokie]

1. Oh brother, Big Brother

but we have seen this coming for years now.