U.S. Government Demands ISP Data Retention

dlc3007 writes to mention an article in the New York Times discussing data privacy. The article expands on the U.S. Government's 'request' last Friday at a meeting between Robert S. Mueller III, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, and the executives of several Internet Service Providers. The ISPs were required to retain data on users, for trials if subpoenaed. Right now they're asking companies to do this. The threat is that, if they don't comply, legislation will follow. From the article: "The Justice Department is not asking the Internet companies to give it data about users, but rather to retain information that could be subpoenaed through existing laws and procedures, Mr. Roehrkasse said. While initial proposals were vague, executives from companies that attended the meeting said they gathered that the department was interested in records that would allow them to identify which individuals visited certain Web sites and possibly conducted searches using certain terms." We originally covered this last Sunday, but more details have been released on the meeting since then.

Comments

Re:Appeals to Emotion.

[Kadin2048]

Can the ISP lobiests motivate the democratic party to put an end to this big brother like behavior?

That was the funniest thing I've read all morning. You might want to make your dry, sarcastic wit more obvious, though. People might misinterpret you as being serious, and think you're a complete moron or something.

In general the only difference between Democrats and Republicans is that the Republicans generally go after the "we have to do this to stop the terrorists" angle, and the Democrats tend towards "we have to protect the children!" The majority of both parties just toss around emotional arguments devoid of any rationality, going after the knee-jerk response in whatever they perceive their principal constituency to be. The only difference is whether they think they can get more of a rise out of said constituency by going at the issue from the perspective of national security or "protecting your children."

The only reason we're not living either in the "People's Republic of the United States" or "Pat Roberson's JesusLand(TM), Brought to you by Bechtel-Halliburton" is because the politicians spend enough time bickering that they generally don't have enough time at the end of the day to seriously screw things up.

Re:Feel Safer?

[Doc Ruby]

Of course there's a difference - just look at the condition the country's in compared to its condition under Democrats. Of course the difference isn't 100% - only Anonymous Republican apologist Cowards would suggest otherwise.

But that's offtopic. All I said was what any Republican would say, trying to get your vote. "The same as the Democrats" is hardly what Republicans say before the public finally catches on that they're terrible governors. Until then, Republicans are sure to say "better than the Democrats", especially when they're lying.