Proposed law will give FBI teeth to snoop

Washington: Invasion of privacy in the internet age. Expanding the reach of law enforcement to snoop on e-mail traffic or on web surfing. Those are among criticisms being aimed at the FBI as it tries to update a major surveillance law.

With its proposed amendment, is the Obama administration merely clarifying a statute or going too far? Only time and a suddenly on-guard Congress will tell.

Federal law requires communications providers to produce records in counterintelligence investigations to the FBI, which does not need a judge's approval and court order to get them.

They can be obtained merely with the signature of a special agent in charge of any FBI field office —there is no need even for a suspicion of wrongdoing, merely the assertion that the records would be relevant in a counterintelligence or counterterror investigation.

The person whose records the government wants does not even need to be a suspect.

The FBI has continued its reliance on the letters to gather information from telephone companies, banks, credit bureaus and other businesses with personal records about their customers or subscribers and from internet service providers.