Obama Administration Wants Backdoor Access into All Internet Communications

The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is likely to come out in support of a plan that would require basically all internet communications technologies to include a backdoor that would give government easier access to wiretap and spy on those communications.  Excerpt:

The Obama administration, resolving years of internal debate, is on the verge of backing a Federal Bureau of Investigation plan for a sweeping overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate using the Internet rather than by traditional phone services, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.

The F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III . . .  since 2010 has pushed for a legal mandate requiring companies like Facebook and Google to build into their instant-messaging and other such systems a capacity to comply with wiretap orders . . .

While the F.B.I.’s original proposal would have required Internet communications services to each build in a wiretapping capacity, the revised one, which must now be reviewed by the White House, focuses on fining companies that do not comply with wiretap orders. 

What this boils down to, is government opposition to secure online communications.  Any backdoor into such communications technologies will expose users to unintended threats, because those vulnerabilities will be exploited in unintended ways.