Republicans propose data retention laws targeting ISPs, home WiFi users

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: February 20, 2009 2:09:30 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Republicans propose data retention laws targeting ISPs, home  
WiFi users

Dave,

IPers may be interested in my article from this evening:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10168114-38.html
Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal  
law that would require all Internet providers and operators of  
millions of WiFi access points, even hotels, local coffeeshops, and  
home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police  
investigations... Translated, the Internet SAFETY Act applies not just  
to AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and so on -- but also to the tens of  
millions of homes with WiFi access points that use the standard method  
of dynamically assigning temporary addresses.

The relevant bills:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.00436:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.01076:

It's unclear why Sen. Cornyn and Rep. Smith want to target home WiFi  
users (plus companies, universities, schools, libraries). Smith has  
been at this data retention thing for over two years now, so he's had  
time to get it exactly right:
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1028_3-6156948.html

Before Democrats start bemoaning how censorial the Republicans are,  
let's remember affection for data retention laws is a bipartisan  
sentiment. The first politician in the U.S. Congress to draft such  
legislation was a Democrat (Diana DeGette).

And the current attorney general, Eric Holder, said this when he was  
previously at DOJ: "Certain data must be retained by ISPs for  
reasonable periods of time so that it can be accessible to law  
enforcement." (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/dagceos.html)

-Declan





-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com