Telephone laws had protected homes and personal
communications from government tampering. But court ruling allows the actual
dialling of the numbers be hidden and instead, only basic information including
when, where and who you called, were the only ones legally viable for exposure.
The advent of the Internet and its continued growth allow
plenty of personal information to legally get in the hands of agencies. A new
draft of a study warns that the line between metadata - the only information
the government can procure - and private information the digital age has
blurred.
The study cites that the Internet is far more complex than
the phone network the metadata laws protect. It recommends that electronic
surveillance laws and policies must accommodate the complexity.
Co-author Matt Blaze said fixing the problem wouldn't be as
simple passing one law or setting a single precedent in court.
"We don't think there's an single fix, and it probably
needs to be addressed at every level from individual cases to comprehensive
'clean slate' legislation," Blaze said.
"What is clear is that rules so deeply rooted in the
technology of the 20th century phone system are going to yield increasingly
unsatisfying results and become less and less useful going forward."
