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DOJ Wants ISPs to Log User Traffic UPDATED

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the call-your-congressman dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Kevin Poulson writes in an article in SecurityFocus that in an early draft of the White House's "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace", the DOJ proposes that the US enact European style 'data retention' laws, which force ISPs to log and retain all of your email headers, as well as your Web browsing history." Nothing worse for the DOJ to be upstaged by Europe in oppressive lawmaking, they must feel like they're losing their edge. Update: 06/19 23:04 GMT by M : The SecurityFocus article has been updated with this note, saying that the U.S. denies having any plans for data-retention laws. Guess we'll have to wait until the plan is released to see.

5 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Mail headers. by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Article seems slashdotted, so I haven't read it yet... but what does this mean for those of us who run our own mail servers? Do we know have retention and reporting requirements on our systems at home?

  2. Re:Will they fund it? by delta407 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Besides which, what defines an ISP? I do work for a school that shares an Internet line with a nearby company; the router is in the school, and the company can use the school's cache server and mail relay. Does the school have to log everything? They certainly can't pay for it.

    Then again, if the government would provide cash for some upgrades, I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

  3. hmmm.. by crimoid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is only slightly different than forcing telcos to retain phone records, with one exception.

    Many URL's can be used to guess WHAT data you've been looking at without actually looking at the website. For example, if someone saw the URL: http://www.nakedkids.com they would assume that it was child porn and whomever looked at it should be red-flagged and investigated. Quite possibly however this site could have NOTHING to do with porn and could simply have a questionable DNS name.

    Perhaps if ISPs were only allowed to track IP addresses....

  4. EU countries will probably NOT ratify it after all by sickasfuck · · Score: 3, Interesting
    At least UK, it seems:

    Home Secretary David Blunkett has admitted he blundered over plans dubbed a "snooper's charter" to give a raft of public bodies in the UK access to private e-mail and mobile phone records.

    The proposals are to be put on hold indefinitely in the face of huge opposition, which the home secretary conceded his department totally failed to predict. (...)

    See http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsi d_2051000/2051117.stm for more info.
  5. Can We Put this in perspective for the courts? by guttentag · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Let's compare:
    • DOJ wants local garbage men nationwide to store all residential and commercial trash in marked bins for 10 years so the FBI can research an individual's lifestyle
    • DOJ wants power companies to keep detailed records of household power usage so the FBI can determine what time of day is best to break in and plant listening devices
    • DOJ wants all White House officials to publish full transcripts of their meetings so the public knows just how much of Bush's energy policy was written by Enron
    • DOJ wants all ISPs to log and retain all of your email headers and browsing history so the FBI can go through your trash without feeling nauseous.
    Which of the above seems reasonable to you, your Honor?