The government wants to have access to your old text messages in case you commit a crime and leave an SMS evidence trail.
"Billions of texts are sent every day, and some surely contain key evidence about criminal activity," Richard Littlehale from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will tell Congress, according to a copy (PDF) of his prepared remarks.
Since the FBI can go through your email whenever they want already – just ask General Patraeus – it's little surprise that the boys in blue want their share of your sext messages too. Can you imagine what Tiger Woods sends his new girl? They can't miss out on that action.
If the government would just create a rewind button on life, none of this would be a problem because they could simply go back and listen to our conversations or watch who we're having sex with. They might also be able to undo the Iraq war, global warming and enact the sequester five years earlier.
This proposal is in for a long, hard look, and will face similar opposition to the SOPA and PIPA measurements from 2012. The government is also unable to record phone calls, and text messages may fall into that realm. It will also face opposition from civil libertarians and the technology lobby.
