Keen Eyesight

Big brother is indeed watching, and his eyesight is getting keener...

Senator Orrin Hatch has some ideas about law and order. He want to add flexibility to the Homeland Security act:

According to a press release from [Hatch's] office, his amendment [to the Homeland Security Act] intends to provide greater flexibility to communications providers and law enforcement when necessary to prevent and protect against devastating cyber attacks. [wired.com]

The act as written would permit warrantless seizure of private communciation. Warrants provide accountability; that's their purpose. The act calls for none. However, it does define the conditions under which and ISP must comply to a seizure request:

reasonably believes that an emergency involving immediate danger of death or serious physical injury to any person requires disclosure of the information without delay [wired.com] (emphasis added)

Hatch doesn't like this. In his view, law enforcment needs more flexibility. Can't have law enforcement handcuffed to some sort of outdated notions of privacy or accountability. His amendment replaces the reasonable belief condition with a good faith one. And it removes the requirement of immediate danger.

Make no mistake, this is not minor wordsmithing, here. With formal accountability thrown to the winds, this is a clear effort to further enable the government to do what they want to whom they want when they want and make it impossible for anyone to ever know it happened.

Got a problem with that? Well it's clear that we need to start watching you a bit closer, too. So you just watch what you say, buster. You just watch it.

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