[EdSharkey]

But isn't this just like forcing these businesses to be a free-of-charge private cloud storage for the government? Oh, silly me, of course there's gonna be payola bigtime for providing a service like this.

If the government can query the whole trove whenever she deems there is a need, what difference does it make where the hard drives live?

Just more lacklustre theatre where nothing really changes and the partners/cronies get some extra loot.

[carboncopy]

Sadly you're right, our tax bucks are going to go toward huge overcharging by these companies.

As of 2013, the FBI was paying $325 per wiretap (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/07/10/what...)