Feds pushing for Internet Records

[struggle4progress]

BY JOHN REINAN
McClatchy Newspapers



MINNEAPOLIS — The federal government wants your Internet provider to keep track of every Web site you visit.

For more than a year, the U.S. Justice Department has been in discussions with Internet companies and privacy rights advocates, trying to come up with a plan that would make it easier for investigators to check records of Web traffic.

The idea is to help law enforcement track down child pornographers. But some see it as another step toward total surveillance of citizens, joining warrantless wiretapping, secret scrutiny of library records and unfettered access to e-mail as another power that could be abused.

"I don't think it's realistic to think that we would create this enormous honeypot of information and then say to the FBI, 'You can only use it for this narrow purpose,'" said Leslie Harris, executive director of the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes free speech and privacy in communication.

"We have an environment in which we're collecting more and more information on the personal lives of Americans, and our laws are completely inadequate to protect us." ...

http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/317067006680886.bsp

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Let's see

they listen to our phones, read our mail, our email, and now they want this. It means more and more STUFF for them to wade through. And much more likely they will MISS anything vital that might be transmitted (and wouldn't you think that any terrorists would find a different way of getting information to each other?). No, this is just another example of Big Brother wanting to keep an eye on the citizens.

[BadgerKid]

3. How long is it before the DHS

seizes and militarizes search engine companies because it's "vital to national security"? Watch yer back, Google. :scared:

[unpossibles]

2. when does it end?

are we going to have to start quartering soldiers in our houses too? In the name of safety of course....

What are we down to now; 2 of the original 10 Rights?

[Old and In the Way]

4. All the while, we see more and more secrets about the decision making

by the Executive Branch. As our lives become more transparent, theirs get more hidden.

[Uncle Joe]

5. They know when you've been sleeping

They know when you're awake

They know when you've been bad or good

So be good for goodness sake

Oh, you better watch out

You better not cry

You better not pout

I'm a telling you why

Big Brother is coming to town


P.S. This last paragraph reminds me of the myriad excuses used to justify the war with Iraq.


"I've been in discussions at the Department of Justice where someone would say, 'We want this for child protection. And someone else would say 'National security,' and someone else would say, 'Computer crimes,'" Harris said. "We're operating in the wild, wild West here."

[peacetalksforall]

6. Who is they. For us, there are two 'theys'. The Bush/PNAC/

Barons who are doing this to us. And then there our theys - our leaders who are presently in control - what are they going to do about this loss of rights? This creeping ownership game - where they own us - by mail, by keystorke, by bar code reader, by satellite.

Yes - what are our leaders going to do about it given that too many of them voted for the Patriot Act and supported NSA spying.

[MichiganVote]

7. This is just so much BS. They CAN monitor persons suspected of child porn

w/o having to monitor the entire nation's web traffic. Sheer nonsense and nosiness. Big brother all the way.