As if the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (a law that forces service providers to make your phone calls available for government wire tapping) wasn't enough, we are not facing the next phase of governmental control.

Get ready to face another hampering of your civil liberties - government access to VoIP and SMS messages. As retrieved from Schneier via Ars Technica:

The government hopes to shore up the legal basis for the program by passing amended legislation. The EFF took a look at the amendments and didn't like what it found.

According to the Administration, the proposal would "confirm [CALEA's] coverage of push-to-talk, short message service, voice mail service and other communications services offered on a commercial basis to the public," along with "confirm[ing] CALEA's application to providers of broadband Internet access, and certain types of 'Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol' (VOIP)." Many of CALEA's express exceptions and limitations are also removed. Most importantly, while CALEA's applicability currently depends on whether broadband and VOIP can be considered "substantial replacements" for existing telephone services, the new proposal would remove this limit.