Sounding the Alarm on Government-Mandated Data Retention

(This was the lead post in the newest issue (issue 24.27) of Risks Digest, an email newsletter sponsored by the ACM, a professional computer organization.)

Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 17:57:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>
Subject: Sounding the Alarm on Government-Mandated Data Retention


(A floor vote on this dangerous piece of legislation may happen as early
as this Wednesday. This is a disaster in the making relating to flagrant
disregard of privacy issues, data access without warrants, unconstrained
dissemination and reuse, etc. The potential downsides are almost too
numerous to list here! PGN)


Greetings. A few days ago, in this message:


http://lists.elistx.com/archives/interesting-people/200604/msg00134.html


I commented on Attorney General Gonzales' recent statement regarding data
retention, and the alarming slippery slope that I feel this represented.


Now, this article:


http://news.com.com/Congress+may+consider+mandatory+ISP+snooping/2100-1028_3-6066608.html?tag=st_lh


reports that a Democratic Congresswoman is proposing to fast-track a bill or
amendment to *require* essentially permanent retention of users' Internet
activity data (until at *least* one year after the user *closes their
account*). For long-term users, this means effectively permanent retention.


Again, I must note the supreme ironies. It was only a few months ago that
people were screaming bloody murder about DoJ demanding Search Engine
records -- a demand that apparently only Google had the backbone to
appropriately resist, noting the sensitivity of the data involved. This
controversy triggered calls (including in some legislative quarters) for a
law mandating the destruction of much related data after some reasonable,
relatively short interval, with appropriate designated exceptions for R&D,
business development, and the like.


Now, by waving the red flag of fighting child pornography, seemingly
intelligent and usually well-meaning legislators appear ready to create the
mother of all big-brother database laws, a treasure trove of personal data
that will ultimately be available for every fishing expedition under the
sun.

...

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