Earlier this month the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence called for a new definition of what it called an “electronic communication service provider” to include “equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store” communications.

It builds on the existing law – Section 702 of Fisa – that allows the US government to compel communication service providers, such as phone and email providers, to disclose communications of individuals outside the US for foreign intelligence purposes without a warrant.

“The reform is significant as it marks the shift in US national security focus from Islamist terrorism to a new cold war focus where the primary threat comes from another major power, specifically China,” [Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, a research fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore] said.

“Hotels, libraries, coffee shops and other businesses that provide wifi could be compelled to serve as surrogate spies, structuring their systems so that they can give the government access to entire communications streams”.