Congress mulls stringent data retention rules
US politicians have proposed legislation that would oblige both ISPs and people running WiFi hotspots to keep access logs for two years.
The stringent data retention rules are among provisions to two companion bills submitted to the House of Representatives (H.R.1076) and the Senate (S.436). Both bills are known as Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act or Internet Safety Act. Each would impose similar regulations, as described below.
The rules are supposedly needed as a aid to law enforcement prosecuting child abuse and internet fraud cases.
Although the measures are sure to draw fire from those concerned about the privacy and cost implications they are not new. The bills' backers this time around are Republicans but in 2006 similar measures were supported by Democrats. Similar legislation was suggested even longer ago back in the 1990s. Previous efforts have run out of political steam but the EU decision to agree a regime on data retention has reinvigorated efforts to put similar laws onto US statute books.
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Wow. This seems like a really bad idea from Senator Cornyn. I think it is too broad and I agree with the Center for Democracy & Technology that this is invasive and unnecessary.
Hopefully Congress will actually choose to open up a discussion about this. Now that they have passed the stimulus package, they should be able to move on to issues like this.
I saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is still asking people to give their opinion on the most important thing for Congress to do next. Then they are going to focus their efforts on getting Congress to accomplish what we actually want them to do.
What do the other readers think Congress should do? Should they work against this Internet Safety Act? Should they work to prevent further exploitation of “for-the-children”-type bills? Or should they focus their efforts on completely different areas? Make sure to add your opinion so Congress can know what we want them to do next - http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=200