The FBI’s GMail spying powers are inhibiting the agency from investigating real-time communications, and the law enforcement bureau is making a case for expanding surveillance powers within “the cloud.”
In 2013, the FBI has made GMail spying a “top priority,” it was revealed this week, as the bureau says real-time opportunities to track criminals are being lost due to the failure of the law to catch up with technology.
The FBI’s GMail spying powers were at issue last week during a luncheon for the American Bar Association in Washington last week. General counsel for the FBI, Andrew Weissman, bemoaned the lack of powers under a nearly 20-year law known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA — which has not been updated to match modern forms of communication.
Weissman discussed the FBI’s limited capabilities for GMail spying as well as obtaining intel on services like Google Voice or DropBox — explaining that as technology develops, traditional surveillance channels are “going dark” as criminals shift from older means of communication to high-tech services.
Of the FBI’s GMail spying limitations, Weissman laments :
“We’re making the ability to intercept communications with a court order increasingly obsolet … Those communications are being used for criminal conversations.”
The FBI general counsel adds:
“This huge legal apparatus … to prevent crimes, prevent terrorist acts is becoming increasingly hampered and increasingly marginalized the more we have technology that is not covered by CALEA, because we don’t have the ability to just go to the court and say ‘You know what, they just have to do it.’ ”
Slate reported on the FBI GMail spying issue in depth, obtaining a statement from Google spokesman Chris Gaither about the limitations on investigations and the reach of the FBI into real-time user communications. Gather explained:
“CALEA doesn’t apply to Gmail but an order under the Wiretap Act may … At some point we may expand our transparency report to cover this topic in more depth, but until then I’m not able to provide additional information.”
Weissman has since declined to elaborate on certain aspects of the FBI’s GMail spying push but concedes there should probably be a “public debate” about it.
