Posted on 06/20/2005 9:06:59 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
Your ISP as Net watchdog Published: June 16, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers' online activities.
Data retention rules could permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity months after Internet providers ordinarily would have deleted the logs--that is, if logs were ever kept in the first place. No U.S. law currently mandates that such logs be kept.
In theory, at least, data retention could permit successful criminal and terrorism prosecutions that otherwise would have failed because of insufficient evidence. But privacy worries and questions about the practicality of assembling massive databases of customer behavior have caused a similar proposal to stall in Europe and could engender stiff opposition domestically. ...
Justice Department officials endorsed the concept at a private meeting with Internet service providers and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to interviews with multiple people who were present. The meeting took place on April 27 at the Holiday Inn Select in Alexandria, Va.
"It was raised not once but several times in the meeting, very emphatically," said Dave McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association, which represents small to midsize companies. "We were told, 'You're going to have to start thinking about data retention if you don't want people to think you're soft on child porn.'"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.com ...
For and easy example, anyone can find a proxy server to use to mask their IP address while surfing, especially one that is in a different country. See www.proxy4free.com (or google for proxy servers). There are even encripted proxy services such as the one offered by Costa Rica-based mailvault.com
When a proxy is used, the server's log file will have the IP address of the proxy server and not the user. Unless the user has signed on to a web site that has identifying information in it such as his real name, this destroys the web log as a souce of information about the surfer.
Either these gumshoes are ignorant of this simple circumvention or they have bigger things in mind with this proposal.
BTTT
The British, and probably most European nations, have this already. Hopefully we will resist this type of phone tap.
Yeah, butt won't the proxy server's ISP have records of who was connected to it at the time, etc, etc...
I suppose that absent detailed logs by the proxy server itself, that makes it more difficult to trace back an individual connection. But still, given timestamps, etc... not impossible.
bookmark for later
Chuck Doggie? What's Buckwheat got to hide?
Looks like the ole Guilty Dog barking first!
I don't want a survellance camera in thebuckwheats home.
This is very disturbing....perhaps the most disturbing thing the Govt has thought about trying in a long time, and yet, it will barely make a whimper and it won't make a big splash. This is one issue I'll be with the nutjob lefties on...big time.
I hate the people with this mentality as much as I do terrorists.
You better start thinking about sending me a $1000 check each month if you don't want people to think that you're soft on child-porn".
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