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FBI Pushing For 2-Year Retention of Web Traffic Logs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the build-a-better-proxy dept.

suraj.sun writes to tell us that the FBI is pushing to have ISPs keep detailed records of what web sites customers have visited for up to two years. Claiming a desire to combat "child pornography and other serious crimes," the FBI and others are pressing for increased data retention, which they have been doing since as early as 2006. "If logs of Web sites visited began to be kept, they would be available only to local, state, and federal police with legal authorization such as a subpoena or search warrant. What remains unclear are the details of what the FBI is proposing. The possibilities include requiring an Internet provider to log the Internet protocol (IP) address of a Web site visited, or the domain name such as cnet.com, a host name such as news.cnet.com, or the actual URL such as http://reviews.cnet.com/Music/2001-6450_7-0.html. While the first three categories could be logged without doing deep packet inspection, the fourth category would require it. That could run up against opposition in Congress, which lambasted the concept in a series of hearings in 2008, causing the demise of a company, NebuAd, which pioneered it inside the United States."

9 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Won't someone please think of the children by ravenspear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously is child pornography going to be trotted out for EVERY encroachment on privacy that we have to endure year after year?

    It's getting so old.

    1. Re:Won't someone please think of the children by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think the government should no longer be able to tax me, to help combat child pornography and other serious crimes.

    2. Re:Won't someone please think of the children by ircmaxell · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Welcome to the world of politics...

      Seriously though, what happens when you don't use the dns provider of the ISP (either running your own, or using a 3pd DNS provider)? Would that make anyone running their own DNS server (or an alternate third party) a suspicious person? They would only be able to log IP addresses then, and given the proliferation of mass shared hosts, how is this helpful? If a child porn site was on a godaddy server, and you go to another site on the same server, would you have to prove you went to the other site? More guilty until proven innocent...

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      If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
    3. Re:Won't someone please think of the children by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seriously is child pornography going to be trotted out for EVERY encroachment on privacy that we have to endure year after year?

      Yes, because it works so well. Just try passing "The Invasion of Privacy Act of 2010" and you'll get laughed off the Senate floor. Present the exact same bill, only change the title to "Child Protection Against Predators Act of 2010" and it'll pass easily. If you can link your bill to child porn, then everyone who even dares to say a word against it is instantly labeled as a supporter of the sexual abuse of children. This is because whenever you say anything about child porn or child predators, the entire electorate completely loses the ability to think rationally and responds in a completely emotionally reactionary way. Emotionally reactionary people are extremely easy to manipulate.

      It's sort of funny how so many people who decry the loss of civil liberties in the name of "socialism" will gladly give up their civil liberties in the name of "protecting children".

  2. Evidence Already? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Will the FBI give us some evidence already that mandatory retained data has been essential to actually solving some significant fraction of crimes, or some convincing evidence that its lack is the only reason some significant fraction goes unsolved?

    Without that evidence, their insistence on invading our privacy instead of protecting it as they're instructed by the Constitution that gives them their powers should just be laughed at.

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    make install -not war

  3. This just in: by honestmonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All stores and restaurants will have to keep logs of every customer that comes in, whether they buy anything or not, including full video of them while they were in the store. Microphones must be set up at every table in the restaurant to record all dinner conversation. All of this data must be kept for ever and a day, and available to anyone who appears to be in law enforcement. Why is real life any different than the web?

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    Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
  4. Before someone says it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This goes beyond the data retention laws in the EU, and even those are under a lot of public pressure and currently being looked at by the highest courts. What you'll see is that your guys will back down from requiring access logs and make ISPs "just" keep a log of the IPs of their customers for two years, like the EU requires, and they'll call it a compromise.

  5. This will be a good idea by florescent_beige · · Score: 5, Insightful

    until someone offers $100,000 to a $15/hr tech to give them two years of Senator X's browsing records. After that, it will have "served its purpose" and will "no longer be in the public's interest".

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    Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller
  6. Monitoring is good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have an even better idea. Let's have all law enforcement officials be required to wear audio and video recording equipment at all times, which are available for all citizens to watch. They do work for us, after all, and I think this would help curb police brutality. I know that most officers are good people, but there are a few bad apples, so we can't be too vigilant.