US Officials Want ISPs to Retain Two Years of Data
From the SANS Institute:
“In an effort to combat child pornography and terrorism, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller have asked Internet companies to retain data on people’s web activity for as long as two years. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the government must have proper legal authority to obtain the records, which would include Internet searches and email traffic, but not the contents of the email.”
Privacy is a touch issue. Initially my thoughts on this were, “big deal.”
But the more I thought about it, the more absurd this request seems.
Here are some points to consider:
- The cost this burden places on ISP’s. 2 years of data is a Lot of data.
- Here, the government is asking the ISP’s to do what the government can’t do legally. The Federal Wiretap Statutes allow ISP’s to log this type of data if it is a part of their normal operations. The government cannot log this data in real-time without a warrant. “We can’t do it legally, so let’s ask someone who can.” The goal is the same, your privacy is PWNED by the man.
- There is no meaningful way to tie searches and email to an individual. This evidence is circumstantial even more-so than normal digital evidence (if that’s possible… hehe). A determined wrongdoer will go to some effort to conceal his identity. Web anonymizers, internet cafes, piggybacking on your neighbor’s WAP, and online email accounts are just a few examples of how one might avoid detection.
- What happened to Omnivore and Carnivore? Is this the same thing except a different perpetrator?
I’ll be interested to see how this shakes out.
Bill