New Bill Would Require US ISPs To Retain User Info

Wesociety writes "The House Judiciary Committee, lead by Rep. Lamar Smith, is preparing a bill which would require internet service providers to retain information about their users to aid in criminal investigations. This particular bill would be a smaller part of a large measure to strengthen sanctions against acts such as child pornography. The most interesting part of this bill however is not who it targets but rather who it does not. The bill would make wireless companies exempt from the requirement to store user data." Declan McCullagh gives a fuller report at CNET. Update: 05/14 00:35 GMT by T : Note: Smith has yet to release the text of the current bill, but it seems an easy bet it will have much in common with his similar-sounding legislative push in 2007, which resulted in the unsuccessful SAFETY Act of 2009.

Comments

So . . .

[Seumas]

If you care about privacy or security, you're either a child molester or a terrorist, I guess.

Re:So . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you care about privacy or security, you're either a child molester or a terrorist, I guess."

Or a copyright infringer. Don't forget that one.

Poor Idea

[hinesbrad]

Wow. Once again congress, a body largely filled with old farts who has zero concept of how far reaching their laws might hit. RIAA just had an orgasm.

Re:Poor Idea

[Ingenu]

Its not just about the RIAA.

Just wait until the rules change and they have retroactive data so can arrest you for what you did a year ago that is now illegal.

Ex post facto laws are generally unenforceable. Beware of the day, however, where an ex post facto law makes ex post facto laws legal.

Re:Poor Idea

[artor3]

I prefer American Taliban. It's more accurate, in that it captures their (ab)use of religion to justify their actions and rally the weak-minded to their cause.

The democrats are no angels, but the republicans are devils.

Re:Poor Idea

[lexsird]

Sadly, this is becoming oh so true. It's come to the point that it's not just Leftwing liberal drivel, it's actually a viable statement. You will find a lot of parallels to the Nazis. I am sure the good people of Germany at the time had no idea what they were being handed until it was too late. They were indoctrinated with some very timely Nationalism, had someone to blame to galvanize them together and a unified goal with a vision. Of course it was barking mad from the top down, but nothing like a Prussian plan when it comes together.

Now here we are, the trumpets of nationalism are blowing super loud, religion is being factored in as well. Our war machine is like no other in history and we are wanting more oil, and we are at the moment seemingly poor. Hmm... Nothing like keeping those American Peasants beat down with high gas prices. They have been doing this to us for over 30 years, gouging us at the pumps and shoveling money into all the right pockets to keep it that way. We are collectively stupid enough to let them get away with it, hence they continue to.

But this "culture" has made keeping people in "order". Sweet Jesus, we bitch and moan about Chinese violations of civil rights, yet we violate our own Constitution with the Patriot Act. Our prison systems are an industry unto themselves. We have more people in prison than any other country in the world, hell, at what point do we have more people in prison than the rest of the world combined? Do you know how much money they get from us the tax payers to house these people?? This is one brilliant method of population domination.

Separation of Church and State, now that is an awesome concept, and let me explain why. It really defines the the lines of our Faith and the utility of government. Neither are suppose to toy with each other, and besides Public Service was for Public Servants, not Public Masters. The citizenry should be held in the highest of esteem, towering over, not groveling under public servants.

Government is in your Church, if you don't know this, you are ignorant. You are not held in the highest of esteem by the system, you are a lemming peasant; public servants will crush you like a bug if you look crossways at them. Don't think so? Sneer the wrong way at the wrong cop and get back to me on that. But don't worry, it's all ok. You will forget about all of this nonsense soon enough. Welcome to information bombardment with redundant contingencies for reinforcing and modifying your behavior. No, no, I don't think Fascism quiet covers it, nor do the Nazis. We are birthing an evil that is all our own, it will have our names on it and we will not share the infamy with anyone else.

What I find amazing is how all of these "right wing" people think they are "Christian". This is the irony and the tragedy of our age. I believe these are the ones warned about in the last days, that are deceived. Leave it to institutionalizing Christianity to flip it into something of the Devil. You can't become involved in politics as a church, or a faith. These are just things that shouldn't mix, ever. First of all, we don't need a middleman, and any religious organization that props one up and tells you that you do, is straight from Hell. Lets run down the highway to Hell even faster by letting these "middlemen" sell us into political prostitution.

Let's face some serious facts. If God was going to have us become political, he sure wouldn't have us associate with either of these dominate political parties. Both of these parties are teaming with heathens. If you were going to have a Party that was "for God", then you had better sure as shit make sure it's a HOLY one and without any of the typical political vermin we have lurking in Washington. Doesn't God have this particular habit of when something subpar to him is placed before him as an offering or as to "his will", that he drop kicks it in the balls? It had better be up to his standards and you had better be listening the fuck up when he talks.

Now is there anyone around that is

So child porn people will just use 3g/4g internet

[Rivalz]

So child porn people will have to use 3g/4g/wifi based inet to avoid being nabbed easily.
Leaving just the average joe left to get screwed by the long arm of the law.

Audit trails need validation

[slashqwerty]

If this passes we will see lots of innocent people prosecuted due to buggy audit trails that are never tested. Seriously, when is the last time anyone tested their audit code to make sure it works properly? If it doesn't crash the app no one worries about it. I've seen all manner of bogus data in audit trails.

Now ISPs will need audit trails on DHCP leases, connections through proxy servers, NAT translations, email senders and receivers, clock synchronizations...

This violates my rights as a Canadian citizen

[WillAffleckUW]

This action violates my treaty rights as a Canadian Citizen.

As well as those of all EU citizens.

Which the US is signatory to by international treaty, which by force of law and the US Constitution, is of a higher level than any Congressional action or bill.

Period.

Re:This violates my rights as a Canadian citizen

[Sarten-X]

How, exactly? What treaty says that the US laws can't apply to Canadians when they do business in the US?

Re:No

[zoloto]

I just love how everything "for the children" or anything relating to child pornography (which is absolutely despicable) can strip our rights away without notice. It's absolute bullshit.

Re:No

[ScrewMaster]

I just love how everything "for the children" or anything relating to child pornography (which is absolutely despicable) can strip our rights away without notice. It's absolute bullshit.

I'm going to venture a guess that this has much less to do with child pornography, criminal investigations and counter-terrorism than you might think at first glance, although I'm sure that law-enforcement types are salivating at the mere thought of having this capability. What it does concern is copyright infringment and anti-file-sharing efforts: I guarantee that you'll find RIAA/MPAA fingerprints all over this, if you look hard enough (that and the fact that the DoJ has been overrun with ex-RIAA attorneys.) If not, well, it sure is remarkably convenient.

Wireless providers are, if anything, placing increasingly stringent limits on how much data users may transfer using their devices, whereas the 250 Gb cap that is becoming common among the big ISPs (yeah, AT&T, I'm looking at you: you just had to take a page out of Comcast's playbook, didn't you) permits plenty of illegal downloading to go on, and the media companies figure that they'll have a lot better chance in court if they're using ISP provided records rather than the manufactured "evidence" provided by Media Sentry (or whatever they're calling themselves nowadays.)

Fact is, there are a lot of pressure groups that want these requirements, and they want them bad. That they have no legitimate need for them, and that having them may very well violate numerous Constitutional provisions means little in the current political climate.