A Push for Surveillance Software

[mikemck@mrc.com]

Here are some choice excerpts from the headline
article of the NY Times Business section, 2/28.

A Push for Surveillance Software

by John Markoff

	In the age of computer communications and digital telephone
calls, the American people must be willing to give up a degree of    
personal privacy in exchange for safety and security, the head of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

	In an interview on Friday, Louis J. Freeh (note: is it really
pronounced Free?), the FBI director, defended proposed legislation           
that critics say would turn the nation's telephone network into
a vast surveillance system. He said taxpayers would be asked to
pay up to half a billion dollars to develop and deploy the
necessary network software.

	The administration wants to impose new technology that 
would enable law-enforcement agents to gather a wealth of personal 
information by monitoring citizens' calling patterns and credit
card transactions over the telephone network - and over the 
two-way cable television networks being planned by cable and                
phone companies. The system would go well beyond current wire-
tapping technology, because much of the information could be 
gleaned without the police or FBI actually having to eavesdrop
on specific voice or electronic-mail conversations.

	"The costs are high, but you have to do a cost-benefit
analysis," said Mr. Freeh, who insisted that fighting terrorists
and criminals was the governments intention - not playing 
Big Brother to the citizenry.

...

	The administration is trying to line up congressional
support for the legislation, called Digital Telephony and               
Communications Privacy Improvement Act of 1994, before having it
formally introduced.

...


____________________________________________________________ 

	There's much more but I don't have a scanner handy. I 
can't believe how quickly this appalling threat has developed.
The government always veils its expansion of powers as a need
for increased security: the War on Drugs, criminals, terrorists.
What I'm really surprised by is that they foresee the endpoint 
of freely available information technology, a diminishing need
for centralized government.

	If the net contributes to the end of centralized control,
it's easy to extrapolate who the target terrorists are going
to be.


mikemck@mrc.com