Ellen Nakashima: The administration wants to add just four words -- "electronic communication transactional records" -- to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge's approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user's browser history. But what officials portray as a technical clarification designed to remedy a legal ambiguity strikes industry lawyers and privacy advocates as an expansion of the power the government wields through so-called national security letters.
Stewart Baker: It'll be faster and easier to get the data.
Nakashima: Senior administration officials said the proposal was prompted by a desire to overcome concerns and resistance from Internet and other companies that the existing statute did not allow them to provide such data without a court-approved order.
Decius: Money for me, databases for you.
Decius: What you tell Google you've told the government.
Eric Schmidt: If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
White House proposal would ease FBI access to records of Internet activity | 
