U.S. wants Web use chronicled
Child pornography, terrorism are targets
By ROBERT SCHMIDT
Bloomberg News
6/2/2006
WASHINGTON - The federal government is asking Internet companies including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and America OnLine to preserve the records of customers' Web activity in order to aid investigations of terrorism and child pornography cases.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III made the request last week at a meeting with industry executives, said Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman. More talks are scheduled for today. Also included in the discussions are representatives from victims' rights groups, privacy advocates and law enforcement officials, he said.
"We have begun initial discussions with Internet service providers and others on this issue of data retention to help the department with bolstering its investigative efforts," said Roehrkasse.
Gonzales is pressing Internet companies for more cooperation as the Justice Department focuses on terrorism and child pornography cases. The move has prompted complaints from privacy advocates and led to a clash earlier this year with Google, the word's largest search engine.
The agency has asked Internet companies to retain records such as lists of e-mails sent and received or information on Web searches. Authorities wouldn't ask the companies to keep the content of e-mails and would use standard legal channels, such as seeking a subpoena, before obtaining information, Roehrkasse said.
The Justice Department has no legal authority to require companies to keep data on their customers and would need to ask Congress for that ability, Roehrkasse said. He said there has been no decision on how long companies would need to store the records.
However, the Associated Press reported that Mueller suggested a period of two years.
New York-based Verizon Communications, the No. 2 U.S. telephone company, and Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable provider, were among the companies at last week's meeting, Roehrkasse said. AOL is the Internet unit of New York-based Time Warner, the world's largest media company.
Gonzales said in April that Internet service providers had hurt child pornography probes by not keeping data long enough. He said he would personally reach out to chief executive officers of leading providers to resolve the problem.
"The investigation and prosecution of child predators depends critically on the availability of evidence that is often in the hands of Internet service providers," Gonzales said in a April 20 speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va. "This evidence will be available for us to use only if the providers retain the records for a reasonable amount of time."
Earlier this year, the Justice Department sparred with Google over a request for information on its customer searches. In March, a federal judge ordered the Mountain View, Calif.-based company to turn over some of the records demanded by the government.
Google initially had refused to give the government the information citing privacy concerns. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, AOL and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo! Inc. cooperated with the Justice Department. Yahoo is the most-visited U.S. Web site. Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, owns the MSN Internet service.
"We strongly support Attorney General Gonzales' interest in assuring that the Internet is safe for everyone, especially children and families," Phil Reitinger, senior security strategist for Microsoft, said in an e-mailed statement. "But data retention is a complicated issue with implications not only for efforts to combat child pornography but also for security, privacy, safety, and availability of low-cost or free Internet services."
One Internet executive familiar with the talks with the Justice Department said one worry is that once retained, the records could be made available for any criminal investigation or civil case, "down to a bad divorce, up to a music company asking for people who visited a file trading site."
I admit this article is good but it kinda scares me. Is terrorism and childporn a problem? Yes. Should online companies when they know of a possible terror attack or sexual abuse be mandated to report it, probobly. But I think what the government wants is a little bit to much. The best way to take away someones freedom of speach and information and privacy is to say there is this evil in this case child porn, that we have to stop. Then you get people to give up there own rights. Has it come to this yet no. But it looks like it could possibley if this passes. Whats to stop someone who works in the government to send an eltronic version of a supena to some internet company then that company sends that guy all your info. He is just one guy he could misuse your personal prvate information. When a crime is commited and the internet is used then the internet company should give all redords over to the authorities. But they shouldn't be forced to keep records of every e-mail of every user for two years. Once this passes then it will 5 years. Then it will be that keeping records is to much of a burden for internet providers. But guess what they can send the info to the government. Plus that way they don't need to bother them every time a crime is commited. And before you know it the government is not only wire taping private citizens they are monitoring web traffic and (e:mails). Who says that they then don't go after people who have decenting opinions. You may say that sounds crazzy but that is what the Chinesse government is trying to do with Yahoo and Google. It is verry easy for a country to turn into a tolotroin rule because they decide to give up there rights to feal safe. People really need to think about there freedom first and not let themselves and there own government be there own opressers
You are so insightful about a lot of things. This is definitely an issue we all should take notice in. The internet makes me very uneasy, but still here I am, puting everything out there. It's wierd how in someways what we do on the internet is permanent, but in the long run its not. I mean archeologists a zillion years from now will never know what was on our internet. It isn't like finding a clay pot or a fork or something in the dirt.