FBI Wants To Eavesdrop On Fiber Links

3 Aug, 2004 at 10:11pm ET Article published in Tech

The FBI wants to force Verizon Communications to make sure that its broadband-over-fiber service can be easily wiretapped by police and spy agencies.

In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission last month, the FBI said that Verizon’s 30mbps (megabits per second) Fios service must be required to abide by a 1994 law that levied complex and expensive eavesdropping requirements on traditional phone companies. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department joined the request. The request made to the FCC marks the latest skirmish in the war over what wiretap rules should apply to the Internet and who will pay for the costs of buying equipment to provide police and spy agencies with backdoors for secret surveillance. The FCC is expected to take a step toward laying down some ground rules at its next meeting on Wednesday.

Source: C|Net

Comments

3 Aug 2004 ~ 10:15pm fatcat nice....so since they can tap muh broadband it should be free right?
4 Aug 2004 ~ 10:58am Gobbles tap this....

Thats BS... is nothing private anymore.... its time for a revolution....

Gobbles
4 Aug 2004 ~ 11:01am Nomad What Verizon is doing by not making it able to wire-tap is actually illegal. Clinton signed this bill ten years ago and it basically went unnoticed by people. All the other comapnies abide by it minus Verizon as far as I know.
4 Aug 2004 ~ 11:40am Linc I'm probably the only person in the US that feels this way, but I don't think I give a rip if the government can tap communication lines. They barely have enough manpower and funding to cover the important stuff, let alone care about me doing something. Add to this that the legislation was passed 10 years ago, and I'll give this a big