politicians worldwide are discovering the internet what a great tool for fascism once you got the laws in place to solve that whole anonymity thing also i notice this story shows the truth the canadian government is really located in washington dc ottawa is just a branch office come to think of it the last story i posted about canada featured the head of its military speaking to us from military hq in palm beach florida owen will canada s isps become spies by declan mccullagh mailto declan mccullagh cnet com staff writer cnet URL august NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER pm pt URL URL washington the canadian government is considering a proposal that would force internet providers to rewire their networks for easy surveillance by police and spy agencies a discussion draft URL released sunday also contemplates creating a national database of every canadian with an internet account a plan that could sharply curtail the right to be anonymous online the canadian government including the department of justice URL and industry canada URL wrote the NUMBER page blueprint as a near final step in a process that seeks to give law enforcement agents more authority to conduct electronic surveillance a proposed law based on the discussion draft is expected to be introduced in parliament late this year or in early NUMBER arguing that more and more communications take place in electronic form canadian officials say such laws are necessary to fight terrorism and combat even run of the mill crimes they also claim that by enacting these proposals canada will be following its obligations under the council of europe s cybercrime treaty URL which the country is in the process of considering if the discussion draft were to become law it would outlaw the possession of computer viruses authorize police to order internet providers to retain logs of all web browsing for up to six months and permit police to obtain a search warrant allowing them to find hidden electronic and digital devices that a suspect might be concealing in most circumstances a court order would be required for government agents to conduct internet monitoring canada and the united states are nonvoting members of the council of europe and representatives from both countries police agencies have endorsed the controversial cybercrime treaty URL which has drawn protests from human rights activists and civil liberties groups of nearly NUMBER participating nations only albania has formally adopted URL or ratified the treaty michael geist URL a professor at the university of ottawa who specializes in e commerce law says that the justification for adopting such sweeping changes to canadian law seems weak it seems to me that the main justification they ve given for all the changes is that we want to ratify the cybercrime treaty and we need to make changes geist said to me that s not a particularly convincing argument if there are new powers needed for law enforcement authority make that case geist added that there s nothing in the document that indicates new powers are needed i don t know that there have been a significant number of cases where police have run into problems probably the most sweeping change the legal blueprint contemplates is compelling internet providers and telephone companies to reconfigure their networks to facilitate government eavesdropping and data retention orders the united states has a similar requirement called the communications assistance for law enforcement act URL but it applies only to pre internet telecommunications companies it is proposed that all service providers wireless wireline and internet be required to ensure that their systems have the technical capability to provide lawful access to law enforcement and national security agencies according to the proposal companies would be responsible for paying the costs of buying new equipment sarah andrews an analyst at the electronic privacy information center URL epic who specializes in international law says the proposal goes beyond what the cybercrime treaty specifies their proposal for intercept capability talks about all service providers not just internet providers andrews said the cybercrime treaty deals only with computer data epic opposes URL the cybercrime treaty saying it grants too much power to police and does not adequately respect privacy rights another section of the proposal says the canadian association of chiefs of police recommends the establishment of a national database with personal information about all canadian internet users the implementation of such a database would presuppose that service providers are compelled to provide accurate and current information the draft says gus hosein a visiting fellow at the london school of economics and an activist with privacy international calls the database a dumb idea immediately you have to wonder if you re allowed to use anonymous mobile phones or whether you re allowed to connect to the internet anonymously hosein said a representative for george radwanski URL canada s privacy commissioner said the office is reviewing the blueprint and does not have any comments on the paper as it stands comments on the proposal can be sent to la al URL mailto la al URL no later than nov NUMBER 