What I'd do if I was in a government and wanted to get access to
important and potentially dangerous information being communicated online:
I'd have somebody start some companies that offered Internet users complete privacy for their communications. Unbreakable encryption, IP anonymity, and other features that people could use to hide the content and even the existence of their communications. I'd make those companies appear to be clearly non-government, and would probably use content that condemned the government for spying on people and decrying that spying. I'd bury any evidence that the government was in any way involved with the companies so deeply that it would be known by only a few people who were absolutely trustworthy.
And then, I'd watch what flowed through the companies carefully, have computers to parse the information, looking for stuff of interest to the government. Then, I'd encrypt it as promised and send it along to its destination. Any information found that had to do with terrorist plans or plots to damage the government would be carefully cleaned of its connection with that company and fed to agencies whose job it was do deal with such plans and plots.
That's what I'd do. I might even base the company in some neutral country or do anything else I could think of to keep the actual government ownership a secret. I might even let it slip that the government was able to snoop on private communications so people would feel threatened and want access to anonymous, encrypted communications capabilities.
If someone came sniffing around eventually, I'd just shut one of the companies down suddenly and claim that I was doing so because the government was about to demand access to information.
Yup, that's what I'd do. Absolutely. But I'm very clever. Probably, governments aren't smart enough to think up something like that, you know. Governments are really stupid and don't really understand technological possiblities Yeah...they wouldn't do something like that....
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