Anyone
with an e-mail account likely knows that police can peek inside it if
they have a paper search warrant. But law enforcement agencies say they
are frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing,
or e-mailing companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation
of a national Web interface linking police computers with those of
Internet and e-mail providers so requests can be sent and received
electronically.
CNET has reviewed a survey scheduled to be released at a federal task
force meeting, which says that law enforcement agencies are virtually
unanimous in calling for such an interface to be created.
The survey, according to two people with knowledge of the situation,
is part of a broader push from law enforcement agencies to alter the
ground rules of online investigations. Other components include renewed
calls for laws requiring Internet companies to store data about their
users for up to five years and increased pressure on companies to
respond to police inquiries in hours instead of days.
But the most controversial element is probably the private Web
interface, which raises novel security and privacy concerns, especially
in the wake of a recent
inspector general's report [pdf] from the Justice Department. The
report detailed how the FBI obtained Americans' telephone records by
citing nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing
phone numbers on a sticky note rather than following procedures required
by law.
Some companies already have police-only Web interfaces. Sprint Nextel
operates what it calls the L-Site, also known as the legal compliance
secure Web portal.
Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in an
interview with CNET: You can be very supportive of law enforcement
investigations and at the same time be very cognizant and supportive of
the privacy rights of our users. Every time a legal process comes in,
whether it's a subpoena or a search order, we do a legal review to make
sure it's appropriate.
Nigam said that MySpace accepts law enforcement requests through
e-mail, fax, and postal mail, and that it has a 24-hour operations
center that tries to respond to requests soon after they've been
reviewed to make sure state and federal laws are being followed. MySpace
does not have a police-only Web interface, he said.
Creating a national police-only network would be problematic, Nigam
said. I wish I knew the number of local police agencies in the
country, or even police officers in the country, he said. Right
there that would tell you how difficult it would be to implement, even
though ideally it would be a good thing.