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More Big Brother

By Pink Slip - Posted on February 17th, 2007
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"A bill introduced last week by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) is beginning to raise eyebrows.

[It] would require ISPs to record all users

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More Big Brother and why I use a privacy service
Submitted by neighborhood co... on Sat, 2007-02-17 22:55.

This is exactly the reason why I pay 5.95 a month for a ssh tunnel service and have all my connections encrypted for e-mail and web browsing.

http://www.aeonity.com/neighbor

Your source is completely
Submitted by HeyHey on Sun, 2007-02-18 00:20.

Your source is completely inaccurate in regards to the last sentence you have quoted. This bill does not require web surfing to be logged. Read the entire bill for yourself: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/smith.data.retention.labeling.draft.0206...

The only thing this bill requires is that ISP have an address and phone number for it's subscribers. Any further regulations would be made by the attorney general. Your quote also mentions "warrantless wiretaps." What they fail to mention is that to get any information at all would require a warrant.

I doubt this bill is passed because it's pretty vague and gives the AG a lot of power in setting regulations, but your source is incorrectly claiming this bill requires certain actions that it, in fact, does not require.

Of course, when quoting a highly regarded media site like The Seminal, what can you expect?

I read that story earlier,
Submitted by HeyHey on Sun, 2007-02-18 01:49.

I read that story earlier, and I almost quoted it as well. But the fact remains that the source you quoted was incorrect. Seeing that it's a blog they most likely want this bill to be defeated and have resorted to marginal scare tactics to do so. I'm not saying I disagree with them at all in their opinion, I just think it is dishonest on their part to say the bill requires that ISPs store all this information when it clearly does not require those regulations. I'm all for people debating issues, but they need to be debated openly and honestly. Claimig a bill does something that it does not is an outright lie and has no place in public dialogue.

Assuming that Gonzalez will push these regulations that far is a leap of faith. It's even a larger leap of faith when you consider that Gonzalez most likely won't be the AG if this bill is signed into law. The question is, why weren't the authors of your source fair and open about the fact that the sitting AG makes most of the regulations of this bill? That would have been 100% accurate, but instead they chose to stretch the truth to the point of lying for their political gain.

This bill won't pass. I'm
Submitted by ToledoPlusPlus on Sun, 2007-02-18 12:53.

This bill won't pass. I'm not worried, but Congressional morons continue their push for such laws as these.

I don't think it'll pass
Submitted by HeyHey on Sun, 2007-02-18 14:44.

I don't think it'll pass either. What I wonder about is what's the need for this law? Isn't all this stuff recorded in some way anyway? ISPs certainly have your address and phone number. I'm sure there's some way to find out what sites you have been to by accessing the ISPs computers. If so it seems like that would all be accessbible if a warrant were issued.

The key words in the bill
Submitted by Pink Slip on Sun, 2007-02-18 01:07.

The key words in the bill are "AT A MINIMUM". Which means Gonzo can require much much more if he wants. And in justification of a "War on Terror", anything goes.

Perhaps this article from the Washington Post suits you a little better:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/12/AR200702...

In it, it states "The Smith proposal would give the attorney general carte blanche to require service providers to keep all information imaginable on every one of their users"

The article also gives an example of what can (and did) happen:

Under mandatory data retention, the chances of targeting innocent people would go up, opponents say. In Arlington County last summer, detectives thought they had tracked an Internet child predator to an apartment, only to find that their target was an innocent elderly woman whose computer's wireless router sent a signal throughout her 10-story building that could be easily hijacked.

Pink Slip

If the government wanted it,
Submitted by ToledoPlusPlus on Sun, 2007-02-18 12:48.

If the government wanted it, they can get it. No ssh tunneling service or email encryption is going to stop that.

Needed Law
Submitted by MadJack on Mon, 2007-02-19 20:18.

From Hey Hey:What I wonder about is what's the need for this law?

Re-election.

The real number of laws, particularly new Federal laws, that actually benefit the common civilian rarely get written or passed. Why? Because real law enables the individual citizen at the expense of the government, the Fortune 500 company and the SIG.

Mad Jack
Mad Jack's Shack

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