FBI Asks Senate Panel to Expand CALEA to Websites
FBI Director Robert Mueller asked for legislation to speed government requests for access to user communications on Google, Facebook and other websites. Tuesday at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing about the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Mueller said the FBI wants to ensure that social media websites “have the capability to respond to court orders” seeking communications of users. The FBI had raised the issue at a February hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, but hadn’t called for legislation.
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"We cannot afford to go dark,” said Mueller. He listed improving social media companies’ ability to provide responses to court-ordered requests for communications as one of the FBI’s priorities. “That might require legislation,” Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said. Mueller replied, “It will.” Lieberman noted that recipients of court orders might want a statute to make clear their obligations. “The Administration has not made a specific proposal regarding legislation,” an FBI spokeswoman said.
The FBI should say why it wants to expand the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, the law that required phone companies to open their lines to wiretaps by law enforcement, Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston told us after the hearing. The request seems to be an “answer in search of a problem,” because the government has not cited “a single instance” of website encryption preventing the government from getting information it needed, Bankston said. The government is unwilling to say if there have been problems getting information from Facebook or Google, he said. Requiring communications service providers online to re-architect their systems to be wiretap-ready would hurt privacy, security and innovation, Bankston said.
Facebook and Google didn’t comment. Google keeps a list of user data requests by the government at www.google.com/transparency. From July to December of 2010, Google “fully or partially complied” with 94 percent of 4,601 data requests from the U.S. government, Google reported on the website.
Also at the hearing, Mueller and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said cybersecurity is a top concern for the FBI and DHS. “Addressing [the] cyber threat will be among the FBI’s highest priorities now and in the years to come,” Mueller said. Napolitano believes “cyber will be an increasing area of focus” for DHS. Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, was “pleased to hear the priority placed on cybersecurity.” Cyber attacks are one of the top threats that Collins believes “we are least prepared for.” She urged passage of her bill (S-413) with Lieberman and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., to require the government to share cyber information with the private sector.
Mueller cited “a difficult balancing act” with sharing. It’s important to push out as much information as possible, but there are “good reasons often you can not give as much detail as you'd like.” Napolitano said she hoped the legislation would move forward. It’s “necessary to establish authorities and jurisdiction and the like,” she said. “The whole cyber arena from a DHS perspective is going to be a growth area, and the information sharing with the private sector -- particularly critical infrastructure aspects of the private sector -- will be key for us.”