The federal government wants to peer into your computer communications, forcing companies to design, or redesign, their networks to accommodate surveillance. The FCC gave broadband Internet service and voice-over-Internet Protocol services, or VoIP, 18 months to ensure that their networks are wiretap-ready.
Is this the Patriot Act at work? Actually its a different act called Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)in 1994, requiring telephone companies to build surveillance capability into their networks.
I agree with EFF:
Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group focusing on technology issues, said: “It doesn't authorize wiretaps. It does something much more intrusive: It dictates the design of technologies from law enforcement's standpoint.”