ISP Snooping Plans Take Backseat

ISP snooping plans take backseat

By Declan McCullagh

A prominent Republican in the U.S. Congress has backed away from plans to rewrite Internet privacy rules by requiring that logs of Americans' online activities be stored.

Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said through a representative this week that he will not be introducing that legislation after all.

The statement came after CNET News.com reported on Tuesday that Sensenbrenner wanted to require Internet service providers to track what their users were doing so police might more easily "conduct criminal investigations," including inquiries into cases involving child exploitation and pornography. The concept is generally called data retention.

Jeff Lungren, communications director for the House Judiciary Committee, said an aide had drafted the proposed bill without Sensenbrenner's direct involvement. "Staff sometimes starts working on issues--throwing around ideas, doing oversight--and (they) get ahead of where the members are and what they want to tackle," Lungren said in an e-mail message.

Sensenbrenner also canceled a May 23 hearing that was scheduled to include a discussion of data retention.

>more

http://news.com.com/ISP+snooping+plans+take+backseat/2100-1028_3-6074070.html

Why its Senselessbluffer, finally realising he's poked the hornet's nest once too often.

Don't worry though, he'll be back with more zany stunts next week.

If you read the article, that's the final paragraph. great. JUST GREAT.

One would think they run the whole damn country.

Jay