FBI Gmail Spying A Priority in 2013; Includes Dropbox and Google Voice

Watch out, the FBI may by spying on your Gmail account. According to Ryan Gallagher at Slate, the FBI has gained more powers to wiretap all forms of Internet conversation and cloud storage. Spying will be a “top priority” this year.

Last week, during a talk for the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C., FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann discussed some of the pressing surveillance and national security issues facing the bureau. He gave a few updates on the FBI’s efforts to address what it calls the “going dark” problem—how the rise in popularity of email and social networks has stifled its ability to monitor communications as they are being transmitted. It’s no secret that under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the feds can easily obtain archive copies of emails. When it comes to spying on emails or Gchat in real time, however, it’s a different story.

Weissmann said that the FBI wants the power to mandate real-time surveillance of everything from Dropbox and online games (“yes, even the chat feature in your Scrabble app”) to Gmail and Google Voice. “Those communications are being used for criminal conversations,” he said.

Furthermore, Weissmann said that the bureau is working with “members of intelligence community” to craft a proposal for new Internet spy powers as “a top priority this year.” Citing security concerns, he declined to reveal any specifics. “It’s a very hard thing to talk about publicly,” he said, though acknowledged that “it’s something that there should be a public debate about.”