FBI Wants To Keep and Store Internet For Records 2 Years

[Dunvegan]

The prime "gateway issues" used to begin infringement of privacy on the Internet seems to be "terrorism" and "child pornography."

It's the opposite of "Mom and Apple Pie"...those ready to restrict rights use these two issues that are repulsive or frightening to Americans, and then leverage that precedent to grease the slippery slope towards revocation of privacy.

I'm getting a little tired of this practice.

There are better ways to investigate and indite on terrorism and child pornography than keeping ALL Internet records of ALL Americans for two years (later, it may be longer.)

I work in Information Security. Three years of stored electronic data is considered the base fiducary level of data storage. That makes it extremely high of a level of public data of all kind from the Internet to hold.

I cannot support this move by the FBI on it's merits. Again there are better ways to do what they claim they want to do.

And, I'm hardly surprised to see Gonzales' name prominent in this story.

FBI wants Internet records kept 2 years

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Michele Gershberg
2 hours, 40 minutes ago

The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants U.S. Internet providers to retain Web address records for up to two years to aid investigations into terrorism and pornography, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The request came during a May 26 meeting between U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller with top executives at companies like Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL. "I think there is less of a willingness to passively go along with this type of request than there might have been a year ago," said the source, mentioning the recent uproar over a report that telephone companies had provided call records to the National Security Agency.

A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the meeting but was not immediately available to comment on how long law enforcement officials wanted the records retained. "This meeting was an initial discussion for the Attorney General to gather information and to solicit input from Internet service provider executives on the issues associated with data retention," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gonzales presented blurred images of child pornography and explained why he thought retaining data was important to those investigations. At issue was Internet protocol addresses. When one industry executive questioned how long the government wanted the records kept, Mueller said for two years and that the data would also be used for anti-terrorism purposes, said the source.

The Justice Department has tangled before with Internet companies over gaining access to records, subpoenaing search data from Google to defend an online pornography law. The government cut the size of its demand and Google acquiesced. In that instance, Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. had turned over search information after receiving assurances that no specific customer data was involved. The IP address is key to unlocking what a person does online, what site they visited what terms they searched, who they e-mailed and what they downloaded, the source noted. Internet providers usually change the address data within several days to several weeks.

[msongs]

1. so how many elected democrats will support this? 50% or more? nt

[EFerrari]

2. What ever happened to Osama Bin Laden?

:hi:

[DainBramaged]

3. Osama Who????

http://www.buzzflash.com/perspectives/Osama_Clock.html



It's been 1718 days since Bush said he'd catch Osama bin Laden 'Dead or Alive!'

[nolabels]

4. Didn't Osama send out a CD of one of his fireside chats last week?

or recording or whatever. Like sometimes it seems he gets more air time than his counterpart *. Do they really want us to believe they are trying to fight crime? They claim they need to compromise everybody's civil rights to find the boogie man but me thinks they be telling a wee bit too many stories

Many have given up the criminal justice system because all them words it is supposed to be about are the antithesis of what is being done.