Campaigners lobby IETF over wiretapping

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has become the target of a campaign to prevent wiretapping on the Web.

Campaigners have written an open letter to the IETF - an international body of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers responsible for the evolution of Internet architecture. The letter calls on the organisation to reject proposals for phone-tapping capabilities in Internet telephony.

US telcos have a legal requirement to build wiretapping capabilities into networks, but the Internet is not covered by the legislation. The IETF is currently debating whether Internet telephony protocols should include wiretapping facilities.

In the letter, lobbyists claim such a development would "diminish network security, result in more illegal activities, diminish users' privacy, stifle innovation and impose significant costs on developers of communications".

"At the same time," it continues, "it is likely that Internet surveillance protocols would provide little or no real benefit for law enforcement."

The campaigners include security and cryptography experts, advocates of user privacy, lawyers and industry chiefs. The list includes William Schrader, founder of PSINet and representatives of Sun Microsystems, Network Associates, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the London School of Economics.