I think that the LI "World Security Patent" is the one patent that everyone will be required to have on their service platforms.
There will be incredible revenues from this technology.
Here is an interesting read:
4. Vodafone report reveals extent of legal wiretapping worldwide
By Scott M. Fulton, III Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
While details of the U.S. National Security Agency's surprisingly amateurish backroom efforts to build Internet surveillance networks continue to trickle in, an apparently forthright and well-researched document released to the general public Friday by Vodafone--the first in what the company promises to be an annual review--specifically identifies those countries where it does business, whose laws compel it to provide private information about its customers on request or warrant.
The 2014 Vodafone Law Enforcement Disclosure Report presents explicit citations of existing laws and regulations throughout Europe, Africa and elsewhere where implicit cooperation with governments in possible surveillance activities is mandated. In making these facts clear, it sheds brighter light on the extent to which certain other countries outside the U.S. utilize telecommunications providers to do their surveillance for them.
The information is not new, except for many who will, in light of recent events, be reading it for the first time.
The Netherlands provides a striking example. In the report, Vodafone reveals that it has been the law there since 1998 that no telecommunications service provider may operate there without providing the government with permission to use its network for wiretapping, but with the wiretapping service itself when it asks for it.
The Telecommunications Act, says Vodafone, "requires public telecommunication service providers to set up and maintain a reasonable interception capability in its [the country's] network. This includes the capability for the service provider in question to be able to implement an interception after having received an interception warrant." This is the same Act which, in 2012, was the subject of so much pressure from European Union authorities to adopt net neutrality amendments.
The Netherlands requires Vodafone and other telcos to retain traffic data about communications involving their customers, but not the content of their discussions.
The government of New Zealand mandates that, when a telco is shown a copy of a legal interception warrant, it not only provide the assistance and humanpower necessary for the government to intercept communications, but also bear the costs for doing so. The telco is obligated to take the steps necessary to ensure that it not accidentally intercept communications which the government may not be authorized to see or hear, or which do not fall under the purview of the warrant.
The implication there is that the telco operator may be liable for damages if it accidentally intercepts someone else's conversation.
The Turkish government's blocking of access to certain Web services, including YouTube and Twitter, is frequently in the news, making Turkey one of the world's "poster boys" for net censorship. The Vodafone report cites that Turkey's state president of telecom communications (TIB) can order Internet access providers to block access to any service, on the grounds that it promotes such socially unacceptable things as suicide, gambling, drug use or prostitution. ISPs must carry out such orders within 24 hours.
Communications can be intercepted in Turkey on the order of any judge or office that has been authorized by law. But then Vodafone goes on to take apart the word "law" as it is construed in Turkey, being certain to leave the quotation marks. An intelligence body, for instance, can be any agency that someone apparently in authority has decreed to be an intelligence body. In this instance, "someone" may be a military police commander or a civilian police commander (separate forces). Any of these authorities may designate someone to become an intelligence body, who may then order the interception of communications or the suspension of service to anyone suspected of corrupting public health or public morals.
Sometimes these authorities may be bound to the opinion of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (BTK), but as Vodafone notes, "there is no absolute ground or application of the occasions that are objectively necessary for the Ministry's opinion."
For more:
- see Vodafone's Law Enforcement Disclosure Report
More on government surveillance:
Time flies when you're leaking secrets [FierceITSecurity]
The NSA, PRISM and Edward Snowden: A year-in-review timeline [FierceITSecurity]
Read more about: Law Enforcement Disclosure Report
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