The advent of computer-based telephone switches and the Internet has made it more difficult for the government to monitor the communications of criminals, spies and terrorists. Federal agencies want Internet companies to comply with the same wiretapping requirements that apply to telecommunications carriers. This proposal, though, may stifle Internet innovation. Furthermore, the new surveillance facilities might be misused by overzealous government officials or hijacked by terrorists or spies interested in monitoring U.S. communications.This was taken from a Scientific American article in 2008 .Now fast forward three years later. On July 27th 2011 The House Judiciary Committee approved a bipartisan bill called the “Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act”. It now has to pass the Senate. Congress is trying to pass legislation that would make it easier for law enforcement to access online information about the activities of all Americans, regardless if they are criminals or not.
While we were fretting over the debt ceiling, thinking it was Armageddon. Our government is on the verge of passing a bill that requires all commercial Internet service providers to retain information about all people who use their service. In the event they are ever asked to hand it over to the authorities. here is the essence of the bill (Retention of Certain Records- A commercial provider of an electronic communication service shall retain for a period of at least one year a log of the temporarily assigned network addresses the provider assigns to a subscriber or customer of such service that enables the identification of the corresponding customer or subscriber information under subsection (c) (2) of this section.) According to Rep Zoë Lofgren of California. “That last phrase, Subsection © (2), is a reference to 18 U.S. Code 2703(c) (2), which says, ‘A provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service shall disclose to a Government entity the name, address, local and long distance telephone connection records, or records of session times and durations, lengths of service, telephone or instrument number, means and source of payment for such service, including any credit card or bank account number.’” An amendment to limit the data that ISPs could collect to IP addresses only was rejected by a 7-16 vote.
Rep John Conyers the top ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee believes the bill is a sneak attempt at making it easier for the government to monitor citizens. “The bill is mislabeled,” he said. “This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It’s creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes.” The bills sponsor and the Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith, admitted that the bill would be used more broadly than its title suggests. The data retention by ISPs would be used to “assist State and Federal law enforcement officials with child pornography and other Internet investigations.” I don't have to tell you that Rep. Lamar Smith is a Republican. They always say they want smaller government but then turn around and try to pass legislation for government intrusion into our privacy. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (Mandatory data retention would force your Internet Service Provider to create vast and expensive new databases of sensitive information about you. That information would then be available to the government, in secret and without any court oversight, based on weak and outdated electronic privacy laws. That same data could become available to civil litigants in private lawsuits—whether it’s the RIAA trying to identify downloader’s, a company trying to uncover and retaliate against an anonymous critic, or a divorce lawyer looking for dirty laundry. These databases would also be a new and valuable target for black hat hackers, be they criminals trying to steal identities or foreign governments trying to unmask anonymous dissidents.) So watch what websites you visit or emails you send the wrong click of a mouse and those black helicopters may be on the way. To protest ,voice your opposition or make your voice heard go to https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=497
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