I know there's more to it than this. I realize this was CALEA's original intent, but I clearly recall around 2004-2005, the various TLA's expanded it to includ

I know there's more to it than this. I realize this was CALEA's original intent, but I clearly recall around 2004-2005, the various TLA's expanded it to include ISPs. Did a little research of my own and found EFF has a nice primer: https://www.eff.org/pages/calea-faq https://www.eff.org/pages/calea-faq . It seems that CALEA started out in '94 for voice calls over the PSTN, but was expanded in 2004 to include "VoIP providers" and "broadband internet providers". Whether the latter are responsible only for monitoring voice-over-broadband, or all data exchanges, is very unclear. Looking at the case files it certainly SEEMS like they're already capturing data exchanges. There are two major differentiators, however, that make H.R. 1981 much more scary. Firstly, the service providers are responsible for capturing this data proactively - effectively a constant blanket wiretap, at the provider's expense. Compare this to CALEA, where the capture begins only after a court order, and the cost is billed to the government. Secondly, and more disturbingly, this bill represents the shift in mindsets of our elected officials. When drafting CALEA in '94, Congress went out of their way to ensure it only applied to PSTN calls (specifically stating it would NOT apply to data networks such as the Internet) and minimized the amount of content logged by the telcos. The baseline assumption was that people are innocent until proven guilty. H.R. 1981 seems to think it's the other way around.