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Proposals like this can win votes from law-enforcement circles. After all, warrantless disclosures and always-ready surveillance equipment would allow cops to gain information about a person with just one phone call. They hate having to follow procedure, especially if that procedure involves waiting for a judge to issue an order.

There's also the more dramatic explanation about how this all boils down to a power struggle between the haves and the have-nots, but I prefer the making-cops-happier explanation. There are plenty of good cops in every country, but law enforcement has a lot of solidarity built into its ranks, so police-related groups can sway many votes. Harper would do anything for a few thousand extra votes.



It's also an issue of costs. If the government can hold up device/protocol X and say your equipment must interact with X, then it makes legal surveillance cheaper.


Well, those into the more dramatic explanation might well observe that the cops are the haves' hired muscle...

...just sayin' ;)




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