E-surveillance is not new in United States and U.S.
is one of the most endemic e-surveillance states of the world. U.S.
and its agencies are targeting not only U.S. citizens but citizens of
the whole world. In fact, James Clapper has confirmed
that NSA has been targeting foreign citizens for surveillance.
Telecom giant Vodafone has revealed existence of secret
wires for government surveillance around the world,
including
India.
Google along with other companies has been fighting
against e-surveillance activities of U.S. agencies. In the past,
FBI’s National
Security Letters (NSLs) with gag orders were declared
unconstitutional by a U.S. District Judge. However, this order
was subsequently narrowed
down by the Judge and allowed the U.S. Department of Justice to
appeal the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Ninth
Circuit.
Now Google is once again taking a stand to protect
Civil Liberties in
Cyberspace by protesting against the proposal to widen the powers
of FBI search warrants. Google has openly conveyed its dissent
for the proposed US Justice Department proposal to expand federal
powers to search and seize digital data, warning that the changes
would open the door to US “government hacking of any facility” in
the world. Google has submitted
(PDF) to the Washington committee that is considering the proposed
changes that increasing the FBI’s powers set out in search warrants
would raise “monumental and highly complex constitutional, legal
and geopolitical concerns that should be left to Congress to decide”.
Google may be using soft language but the reality is
that U.S. and its agencies are already indulging in world
wide e-surveillance in clear violation of international
laws and state’s sovereignty. The revelations by Edward
Snowden have proved this point well beyond any sort of doubt.
Radio waves and
Malware have also been used by NSA for world wide e-surveillance.
Malware like FinFisher
are increasingly being used for global electronic spying,
e-surveillance and eavesdropping. Further, GCHQ and NSA have
intercepted and stored webcam
images of millions of innocent Internet users. Kaspersky has also
revealed
hardware based stealth spyware used by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Reacting to these sorts of e-surveillance activities
by U.S. agencies, Brazil and the European Union recently
announced plans to lay a $185 million undersea fiber-optic
communications cable between them to thwart U.S. surveillance.
Surprisingly, Google is also building
the Brazil-US fiber optic cable that seems to be a contrary stand of
Brazil. However, it is obvious that NSA’s/U.S. agencies
surveillance may cause breakup
of Internet if not checked immediately.
As far as FBI’s enhanced search powers are
concerned, Google’s main concern is that FBI agents would be able
to carry out covert raids on servers no matter where they were
situated, giving the US government unfettered global access to vast
amounts of private information. In particular, Google is not happy
with the FBI’s desire to “remotely” search computers that have
concealed their location either through encryption or by obscuring
their IP addresses using anonymity services such as Tor.
Surprisingly, U.S. agencies consider anything that is encrypted and
anonymous as a potential threat and a fit case to exercise their
jurisdiction. This is irrespective of the fact that such encrypted
communication may have originated outside the jurisdictions of U.S.
over which neither U.S. nor its agencies have any powers and
jurisdiction to exercise.
On the other hand, U.S. Justice Department is
calling for the scope of warrants to be widened so that FBI agents
can search property even if the computers are located outside the
concerned judge’s jurisdiction. The FBI argues that this new power
would be essential in investigations where suspects have concealed
the location of their computer networks. This is a genuine concern of
FBI but encrypted and anonymous services are also used by law abiding
and privacy loving people as well. Further, exercising extra
territorial jurisdiction over foreign citizens has serious
international laws concerns as well.
The Justice Department has also tried to assuage
anxieties about the proposed amendment. In its comment
(PDF) to the committee, DoJ officials say that federal agents would
only request the new type of warrants where there was “probable
cause to search for or seize evidence, fruits, or instrumentalities
of crime”. But civil liberties and legal groups remain unconvinced,
insisting that the language is so vaguely worded that it would have
draconian and global implications. In its submission
(PDF), the American Civil Liberties Union said that the proposed
changes could violate the fourth amendment of the US constitution,
which bans unreasonable searches and seizures.
It would be interesting to know how Congress would
resolve these conflicting claims. But one thing is for sure. We at
CECSRDI
believe that there must be a balance
between civil liberties protection and national security requirements
and giving primacy to one over another would only be
counterproductive and a bad policy decision.
Source: Global
Techno Legal News And Views.
