Friday’s terrorist attack in Paris has sparked the argument that there is a need for expanded government surveillance. CIA director John Brennan stated, “I do hope that this is going to be a wake-up call.”
The pressure is on to grant new digital authorities to law enforcement. British officials are asking to fast-track legislation that would allow police to monitor citizens’ web browsing.
Restrictions on domestic spying have been heavy since the mass surveillance of phone and Internet communications revealed by Edward J. Snowden. The information exposed by Snowden warranted criticism, lawsuits, and new restriction on electronic spying in the United States and Europe.
The French law that was passed in May would allow authorities to monitor phone calls and e-mails of people who are suspected of terrorist activities without having a warrant. It also requires Internet providers to collect and analyze information about French Internet users. Then, the information is to be given to intelligence agencies to review.
The Investigatory Powers Bill would require telecom companies to keep records for a year of their customers’ web activities. Also, it would allow law enforcement to access customers’ encrypted Internet communications. This is a huge issue with privacy advocates.
There are warnings of taking caution against speeding this bill along.“While some people seem eager to seize on this crisis to resurrect failed policies of the past, the facts show mass surveillance doesn’t protect us from terrorist attacks,” said Senator Ron Wyden.
The Obama administration has been in a debate on ways to gain access to terrorist and criminal communications through electronic encryption. The problem they have foreseen is that the tech companies have made the encryption so that they, themselves, cannot even unlock them, not even with a warrant. This makes it hard to catch any criminals or persons who are involved in terrorist activities. Officials have put pressure on tech companies to build a way to unlock this type of data. The tech companies and privacy advocates are concerned that this will increase the risk of users.
The White House is not pursuing legislation that requires these companies to cooperate, but some are saying to keep the option on the table. The bill still has several holes that have not been resolved.“We cannot let fear drive us to make irrational decisions that will only make us less safe—reducing both our cyber security and our economic security,” said Kevin Bankston, the director of New America’s Open Technology Institute.
After the Snowden scandal, there are arguments that it is not the lack of information that the NSA has, but that too much information is obtained by the NSA. There are members of the intelligence community that disagree with this way of thinking. The use of the program is to “pull out targeted information from bulk surveillance,” says Stewart Baker, a former senior of Department of Homeland Security and National Security Agency. Baker also worries that terrorists will learn where the NSA’s “blind spots are,” and that some level of secrecy should be kept to preserve intelligence capabilities.
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