[Infowarrior] - The British want to come to America — with wiretap orders and search warrants

[Richard Forno]

The British want to come to America — with wiretap orders and search warrants
By Ellen Nakashima and Andrea Peterson February 4 at 7:00 PM

If U.S. and British negotiators have their way, MI5, the British domestic security service, could one day go directly to American companies like Facebook or Google with a wiretap order for the on-line chats of British suspects in a counterterrorism investigation.

The transatlantic allies have this month quietly begun negotiations on an agreement that would enable the British government to serve wiretap orders directly on U.S. communication firms for live intercepts in criminal and national security investigations involving its own citizens. The British would also be able to serve orders to obtain stored data, such as emails.

The previously undisclosed talks are driven by what the two sides and tech firms say is an untenable situation in which foreign governments such as the United Kingdom cannot quickly obtain data for domestic probes because it happens to be held by companies in the United States. The two countries recently concluded a draft negotiating document, which will serve as the basis for the talks. The text has not been made public but a copy was reviewed by The Post.

The British would not be able to directly obtain the records of Americans, if a U.S. citizen or resident surfaced in an investigation. And it would still have to follow U.K. legal rules to obtain warrants.

Any final agreement will need Congressional action, through amendments to surveillance laws such as the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act....

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-british-want-to-come-to-america--with-wiretap-orders-and-search-warrants/2016/02/04/b351ce9e-ca86-11e5-a7b2-5a2f824b02c9_story.html

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