Congress Looks Into FBI's Telecom Spying

Bill seeks to expand government's wiretapping power

(NEWSER) - The feds want to overhaul wiretapping regulations to expand their ability to eavesdrop online, reports the New York Times . The Obama administration plans to submit a bill to Congress next year that would require all service providers to be technically capable of wiretapping the communications they enable, from encrypted BlackBerry emails to Skype messaging. Law enforcement types say their surveillance capabilities are "going dark" as everybody—from mob bosses to drug cartels—turns away from telephones. More»

Agency now has more freedom to search trash

(NEWSER) - A new FBI manual makes it easier for agents to check databases, send out surveillance teams, and rifle through people's trash—often as part of a kind of investigation that gives agents the OK to look into people without having solid evidence that they are involved in terrorist or criminal activity. Among the changes to the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide: FBI agents will be allowed to probe law enforcement and commercial databases without opening a formal inquiry first, as they must do now. They’ll be able to run lie-detector tests and search trash without initiating a “preliminary investigation”—a move that requires suspicion grounded in facts—if they're evaluating a target as a possible informant. More»

People are unfairly targeted, complain Muslim groups

(NEWSER) - The FBI has been given far too much leeway to gather information on individuals and groups, charge Muslim and civil liberties organizations. Guidelines in a newly disclosed FBI manual allow the bureau to probe people or organizations without any factual evidence against them. Agents are given broad powers to proactively seek information and to use race and religion as factors in choosing whom to monitor, reports the New York Times . More»

(NEWSER) - Big Brother alert: A data-mining system set up by the FBI ostensibly to catch terrorists is quickly growing into a database that tracks the comings and goings of ordinary citizens. The database has tens of thousands of records from private corporations, including some Wyndham hotel reservations, Avis car rentals, and even Sears credit card transactions, according to declassified documents obtained by Wired. The agency has requested access to more sources, including the change-of-address database and Social Security numbers. More»

(NEWSER) - The Obama administration is looking into the country’s top telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon, to determine whether they’ve abused their market power with anti-competitive actions, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. The Justice Department is concerned that, among other things, the big players are locking out competitors through exclusive agreements with phone producers, as in AT&T’s iPhone deal. More»