Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) has introduced legislation to require Internet Service Providers to store records of their customers’ activities online, according to the ACLU. It would allow Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to decide what data the ISP’s would have to store and for how long.
From Marvin Johnson of the ACLU:
Legislation like this is like swatting a fly with a bazooka. Such sweeping measures do little to stop online crime; instead, they overwhelm law enforcement agents with mountains of raw data and have a chilling effect on ISP subscribers’ First Amendment rights.
Technorati Tags: Politics, Current Events, Bush, Current Affairs, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Electronic Rights, Anonymity, Free Speech, Right to Privacy, Online Rights, Internet Service Providers, Lamar Smith
15 February 2007 at 9:13 am
Hey, way to post on this. This is Bull, especially after the google and AOL leaks (among others) ISP’s need to routinely purge their data if anything, and it’s insane that congress is moving in the opposite direction. I follow the privacy blog http://www.globalpov.com on a daily basis, and this sort of news makes me really upset.
15 February 2007 at 9:27 am
Exactly. If the bill passes, Gonzales could require every ISP to track literally everything a user does and keep it forever. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to happen in China.