U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records

The New York Times ^ | 6/2/06 | Saul Hansell & Eric Lichtblau

[steve-b]

The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales held a meeting in Washington last Friday where they offered a general proposal on record-keeping to a group of senior executives from Internet companies, said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department. The meeting included representatives from America Online, Microsoft, Google, Verizon and Comcast....

An executive of one Internet provider that was represented at the first meeting said Mr. Gonzales began the discussion by showing slides of child pornography from the Internet. But later, one participant asked Mr. Mueller why he was interested in the Internet records. The executive said Mr. Mueller's reply was, "We want this for terrorism."...

[steve-b]

The real story here is:

An executive of one Internet provider that was represented at the first meeting said Mr. Gonzales began the discussion by showing slides of child pornography from the Internet.

There is, obviously, a special exemption for the laws against child pornography to allow law enforcement personnel to gather and display it as evidence in a criminal prosecution. Running a kiddie-porn slideshow during a public policy debate does not qualify.

If the facts are as advertised, our Attorney General is guilty of one of the sleaziest crimes imaginable.

[FormerACLUmember]

Can anyone imagine what would happen if Hillary or the demcorat party regained the executive branch with all these new powers at their disposal? An absolute civil liberty and corruption horror!

[kinoxi]

i think surveillance is a necessary evil but this stinks

[Paladin2]

We need to have a Privacy Amendment to the Constitution to preserve the privacy of US Citizens.

[FlingWingFlyer]

It seems to me that it would be easier to just shut down the kiddie porn sites and not worry about what the customers are doing. Better yet. Do what any good politician would normally do in this situation. TAX the hell out of the kiddie porn sites and those who visit them.

sarcasm/off

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Ah yes, child-porn, the red herring that Internet big-gov't regulators resort to in their ongoing crusade against freedom.

[atomic_dog]

If kiddie porn did not exist the statists would invent it.

[blu]

I have officially had it with this crap. Oh, sure, call me Pollyanna (knots landings fans, you know the rest of the speech) but I thought I lived in the land of the free (because of the brave, I know). Let's force everyone who works in DC to watch "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", it's on TCM right now.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,

[Waco]

This clearly shows, the FBI has plenty of "records" re Hillary's theft/misuse of 900+ FBI files. How bout a little more law enforcement ad a bit less blather about the internet, huh? Besides that, the FBI knows full well that Hillary has had 2 terms already.

[Zeppo]

It sure sounds, uh, bizarre, but then this story comes from the New York Times, and their track record for accurate reporting is so poor that I no longer believe anything that appears there unless it is backed up by a reputable source...

[Zeppo]

An executive of one Internet provider that was represented at the first meeting said Mr. Gonzales began the discussion by showing slides of child pornography from the Internet.

The phrasing of that sentence is also somewhat bizarre - upon a second reading (and third, and fourth), it does not sound like the "executive" who provided that information to the reporter was actually present at the meeting, and rather that the reported incident is at best hearsay (removed who knows how many times from the original source).

Note that that executive is described as being from one of the companies that was represented at the meeting, and not as being one of the participants in the meeting. So it could be that Bob, who was actually at the meeting, related some information about the meeting to Susan, who was not there, and then perhaps Susan passed it along to Fred, who also was not there, and it was Fred who spoke to the NYT reporter and passed on what he had heard third-hand... Of course, it could also be sloppy reporting and/or editing by the NY Times...

[clyde asbury]

"We want this for terrorism."

Great idea. Come and get me.

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[steve-b]

That's why I included the "if the facts are as advertised" proviso. The report that the Attorney General violated the law so brazenly ought to be checked out and definitively confirmed or refuted.