Nicole Ozer
Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director
ACLU of Northern California
7/27/2011
Today, the House Judiciary Committee is voting whether to approve legislation that would create a sweeping new provision requiring Internet companies (email, cloud, social networking, and more) to collect and retain hundreds of millions of records about the identity of online users. The bill, HR 1981, the “Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011,” – if only it were that narrow! – is a direct assault on the privacy of Internet users and overlooks some key fixes that could actually help to address the very real problem of child exploitation.
We blogged about the bill’s serious privacy implications back in May. Despite some recent amendments, the legislation still has fundamental problems.
The bill requires Internet companies to log all temporarily assigned network addresses, also known as IP addresses, for a minimum of one year. IP addresses directly link individuals to their online activity and can reveal very private information about everything from health concerns to political interests. And once all of this personal information about innocent Americans is collected, it would be available to law enforcement for any purpose.
Broad immunity provisions for companies in the bill also threaten to undermine state data breach laws and data security protections as well as potentially immunize companies against tort and other claims. At a time when high profile data breaches aredaily news stories and identity theft is widespread, this provision seems ill-considered at best…
The article continues at ACLU.org
Related: At The Blaze, Feds Threaten Google, Microsoft, Apple to Regulate Tech Industry on Internet Privacy Controls
WASHINGTON (The Blaze/AP) — The federal government has put Google, Microsoft, Apple and other technology companies on notice: Give consumers a way prevent advertisers from tracking their movements across the Web – or face regulation.
Yet for all its innovative know-how and entrepreneurial spirit, the technology industry has yet to agree on a simple, meaningful solution to protect consumer privacy on the Internet.
So privacy watchdogs and lawmakers are stepping up the pressure, calling for laws that would require companies to stop the digital surveillance of consumers who don’t want to be tracked. They argue that effective privacy tools are long overdue from an industry that typically moves at breakneck speed…
Update: House panel approves broadened ISP snooping bill
Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers’ activities for one year–in case police want to review them in the future–under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today.
The 19 to 10 vote represents a victory for conservative Republicans, who made data retention their first major technology initiative after last fall’s elections, and the Justice Department officials who have quietly lobbied for the sweeping new requirements, a development first reported by CNET.
A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers’ names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses, some committee members suggested. By a 7-16 vote, the panel rejected an amendment that would have clarified that only IP addresses must be stored.
It represents “a data bank of every digital act by every American” that would “let us find out where every single American visited Web sites,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill…
CAJ note: No one should be supporting this bill. If you agree, please contact your Congressional representative.
Update 2: Where Right Meets Left :
Republicans in the House Judiciary Committee Approve ISP Snooping Bill, HR-1981.
On Thursday legislation was approved that would force internet service providers to save information on customer usage for twelve months on the chance law enforcement might want to look at it sometime. The bill was mislabeled the “Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011” in a nauseating attempt to cut off debate on its merits.
It eliminates the warrant requirement.
ISPs would be required to store customer names, bank account numbers, IP addresses, credit card numbers and home addresses. In other words, a gigantic database will be created for any snooping purpose. And, let’s be clear, since there is no warrant requirement, law enforcement will end-up simply grabbing all of the information available, whether or not there is an ongoing investigation, and storing it permanently.
Republicans did this.
There’s a point where right meets left. It’s where some in the Republican party would liberally use government power to further their ends. It’s a “we need a new law for that” kind of mentality. “Hell, we just wanna do good.” They’re the same as liberals; they’re just on different sides of the coin…
Read the whole thing; the list of Republican Representatives who voted this out of the committee is included in the article. There are links to transcripts and webcasts of the full committee markup of the bill.
