FBI director wants ISPs to track users

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year.

"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.

ISP snooping time line

In events that were first reported by CNET News.com, Bush administration officials have said Internet providers must keep track of what Americans are doing online.

June 2005: Justice Department officials quietly propose data retention rules.

December 2005: European Parliament votes for data retention of up to two years.

April 14, 2006: Data retention proposals surface in Colorado and the U.S. Congress.

April 20, 2006: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says data retention "must be addressed."

April 28, 2006: Rep. Diana DeGette proposes data retention amendment.

May 16, 2006: Rep. James Sensenbrenner drafts data retention legislation--but backs away from it two days later.

May 26, 2006: Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller meet with Internet and telecommunications companies.

June 27, 2006: Rep. Joe Barton, chair of a House committee, calls new child protection legislation "highest priority."

"All too often, we find that before we can catch these offenders, Internet service providers have unwittingly deleted the very records that would help us identify these offenders and protect future victims," Mueller said. "We must find a balance between the legitimate need for privacy and law enforcement's clear need for access."

The speech to the law enforcement group, which approved a resolution on the topic earlier in the day, echoes other calls from Bush administration officials to force private firms to record information about customers. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for instance, told Congress last month that "this is a national problem that requires federal legislation."

Justice Department officials admit privately that data retention legislation is controversial enough that there wasn't time to ease it through the U.S. Congress before politicians left to campaign for re-election. Instead, the idea is expected to surface in early 2007, and one Democratic politician has already promised legislation.

Law enforcement groups claim that by the time they contact Internet service providers, customers' records may have been deleted in the routine course of business. Industry representatives, however, say that if police respond to tips promptly instead of dawdling, it would be difficult to imagine any investigation that would be imperiled.

It's not clear exactly what a data retention law would require. One proposal would go beyond Internet providers and require registrars, the companies that sell domain names, to maintain records too. And during private meetings with industry officials, FBI and Justice Department representatives have cited the desirability of also forcing search engines to keep logs--a proposal that could gain additional law enforcement support after AOL showed how useful such records could be in investigations.

A representative of the International Association of Chiefs of Police said he was not able to provide a copy of the resolution.

Preservation vs. retention
At the moment, Internet service providers typically discard any log file that's no longer required for business reasons such as network monitoring, fraud prevention or billing disputes. Companies do, however, alter that general rule when contacted by police performing an investigation--a practice called data preservation.

A 1996 federal law called the Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act regulates data preservation. It requires Internet providers to retain any "record" in their possession for 90 days "upon the request of a governmental entity."

Because Internet addresses remain a relatively scarce commodity, ISPs tend to allocate them to customers from a pool based on whether a computer is in use at the time. (Two standard techniques used are the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet.)

In addition, Internet providers are required by another federal law to report child pornography sightings to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is in turn charged with forwarding that report to the appropriate police agency.

When adopting its data retention rules, the European Parliament approved U.K.-backed requirements saying that communications providers in its 25 member countries--several of which had enacted their own data retention laws already--must retain customer data for a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years.

The Europe-wide requirement applies to a wide variety of "traffic" and "location" data, including: the identities of the customers' correspondents; the date, time and duration of phone calls, VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls or e-mail messages; and the location of the device used for the communications. But the "content" of the communications is not supposed to be retained. The rules are expected to take effect in 2008.

CNET News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report.

[Jim Hubbard]

Just like Nazi Germany....

...when the Nazi government got citizens and businesses to spy on one another in the name of the state.

But, consider yourself lucky. You get a front row seat to the decline and collapse of the United States of America.

I really wish it were not so. i love my country. But how can we do the same things - follow the same paths - as other failed governments and expect different results?

Physics and life just don't work that way.

[FooKBush]

Our founding Fathers are rolling in there graves

And as far as im conserned any public official that demands , asks for, proposes, votes for this or any other invasion of american privacey no matter how small...should be down there rolling with them.

[zanzzz]

Total Security

"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom."
- Dwight Eisenhower
Well we are all going to prison- step by step. It's all courtesy of a government that has more fear than wisdom. Each new intrusion, inspection, and limitation enacted with the best of intentions upon us by our government transforms our way of life into a system we fought and are fighting wars to resist. Each policy change viewed in isolation seems hardly a threat to the average law abiding person. Who is hurt if all our calls and emails are monitored by government agencies? Why get upset if everything we do is recorded so authorities can later sift through the paper trail to find criminal behavior? Why object to a president that signs a law entitling himself to decide what constitutes torture or who has constitutional rights? Why raise a fuss if our government decides a group or country it distrusts must be attacked now to prevent a possible future threat?
It seems irresistible for a government to always reach for more power, more authority, more instruments to conduct in the illusive goal of greater security. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. This is one government project we seem to be making much progress in!

[HandGlad2]

I have a better idea

Hey lets just allow the FBI to put wire taps on everyones phone. That is in essence what this is doing, as more people use the internet instead of the phone the FBI forcing companies to record peoples usage of the internet is the same thing as a global wire tap. It doesn't matter if the FBI uses the wire tap, the fact is their are already legal ways for them to tap into peoples communications. The FBI just want to throw away all any right to privacy that we have. Vote democrat and get these power hungery right-wing nuts out of our lives.

[umbrae]

Please contact your local Congressmen...

Please, oh, please contact your congressmen if you are against this. We need them to understand this is unreasonable.

I wonder if they release that this information will be kept on THEIR access as well.

[AgileMolecule]

No, I have the better idea

Let's just clone 240,000,000 FBI ratsnitches and let these freaks live with each and everyone of us in our homes. Do these people even understand the concept of a Limit? I don't think they do.

The FBI Director can take a flying leap from the Statue of Liberty for all I care, since he is pretty much throwing the American Citizen from it anyways.

[umbrae]

Please contact your local Congressmen...

Please, oh, please contact your congressmen if you are against this. We need them to understand this is unreasonable.

I wonder if they release that this information will be kept on THEIR access as well.

[JG725]

FBI rats

Don't even try to keep them off -- they're already spying on you -- and they don't bother asking permissions from anyone, even from Mr President.

[crystallady]

Government and the Internet

Most governments are scared to death of the internet. Now their dark deeds can be flashed around the world by passing boundries and language barriers. It threatens their hold on the people and is harder to control then newspapers and other information media. Anything they can do to sound the death bell on the internet is just to protect their own behinds. Intimidation is the name of this game. If they really wanted to get the porno off the web they could do so. Just shut the filth down. This is just the excuse to find a way to curtail the peoples right to know. I am sure registaring on this web site will put me on somebody's watch list.

[extinctone]

You People are Un-American

I guess you people want the terrorist to win? You people are all un-American. I'm going to be a good American and report all your names over to the FBI. Dear Leader will be so proud of me!

[bvdon]

This is not America

Data Retention is akin to recording everything you say in the
privacy of your house... you know, just in case you turn out to be a
criminal - we need to have that.

I hope people are going to fight this.

[jendeb2010]

This legislation, while fair, invites fanaticism.

I applaud the FBI directors goal of enhancing law enforcements ability to prosecute criminal activity. The dilemma is that the proposed legislation is has aroused intense privacy concerns. My real fear is that anti-government fanatics on both the far right and far left will be inspired to brutally assassinate government officials and their families in a misguided effort to "get even" with a government they percieve as being too intrusive in their personal lives. I don't want to see bombs going off on Capitol Hill, with bloodied innocents emptying out of firey buildings only to be gunned down by waiting squads of "militia" dispensing warped "justice". This legislation has practical merit, but privacy concerns must be addressed in detail lest a tragedy befall this great nation.

[RichAndPretty]

What's the big deal?

Phone companies regularly keep our phone records, and when properly obtained by warrant, they have proven to be very valuable in solving crimes. I don't see how this differs, except to the paranoid, that is.

RAP

[JohnnyL]

No Real Need...

When you think about it, there is no more justification for tracking our every online move than than there would be for tracking what we do in our everyday lives. So far I haven't heard of any terrorist investigations that have been foiled by the inability to sift internet records. Seems like the only crimes being committed these days is terrorism and sexual predation....or these are the ones that are being brought up on a regular basis to justify just about any invasion into our private lives. I do know that if they start to track searched, my local libraries are going to start showing up as hot beds of terrorism and sexual depravity....at least it will look that way when they start to go through the records. Everyone should start doing that. Once a week, go to your library and start searching for how to build bombs, famous landmark bluprints, kiddie porn, anything you can think of. Have some fun with it....cause you know that pretty soon, if they can get this through they will start to look at the records without even getting a warrant. Lets fuzz up the records. Put so much static out there that it clouds up eveything. I know I'm going to do my part.

[Mage99]

Read the article before you jerk your knee...

The article clearly states that to comply with US law US ISP's must retain at least 90 days worth of IP usage data i.e. who used the IP not what data was passed. By law that both types of data can only be obtained with a court order i.e. subpeona by law enforcement. All this says is that they may by law to make the retention time longer i.e. six months like the EU laws require. Again ISP's already provide this data, it's nothing new and they've been doing it for YEARS, to GET THE BAD GUYS. And unless your against persuing child predators and scam artists ripping off the elderly, this type of legislation shouldnt scare anybody.

[matt_parker]

Where Are The Limitations and Target Definitions?

They say they want this information to catch pedophiles or terrorists, but I have yet to see a deinition of a terrorist. It can mean anyone that the government doesn't like. The government has no business regulating private companies for their own ends. They need to go through the proper channels and get a judge to approve surveillance before they snoop on whomever they want. There is simply way too much room for abuse in the name of the law. They are counting on the general public to have the attitude that if you aren't doing anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about.

[Dalkorian]

Fine

No problem. Once the government can prove that it can secure
our private data and not lose it in yet another "break-in" or "lost
laptop".

Since they obviously can NOT accomplish that simple task, I say
they should WORK WITH THE LAWS THEY ALREADY HAVE!

Come on people, do you really believe that the guilty have gone
free due to the ISP's not working with the police? DEE-DEE-DEE!
How stupid can you be? Re-read that article, the ISP's are already
retaining data for police use. The issue isn't the data isn't there,
the issue is the government can't go back 6 months to find
skeletons in the closet of AMERICANS who don't agree with their
draconian, nazi view on the world.

WAKE UP PEOPLE - IMPEACH THE SON OF A BUSH!! NOW!!!

[waterspider]

FBI

Someone has to do it. The FBI can't figure out who is in the office on any given day.

[enigma.live]

All Libertarians..Vote DEMOCRAT this time

The only possible fight we have to protect our rights without taking drastic measures is to VOTE DEMOCRAT...unfortunately the reality is in most all cases is when it's a Presidential or Congressional race then it's either going to be a Republican or Democrat and if you think an independent is going to do something, forget it. Yes, it's the worse of two evils right now. Republicans are unprecendently trampling on our privacy rights and all other rights. Simply they are arrogant and don't care. The only ones who have really done something to uphold the constitution is Democrats, and I'm no Democrat, but look at the judges behind some of the best upholding of constitutional rights, they were appointed by Democrats. If you want your rights as an American citizen, vote Democrat!!!

[Sunflare98]

A step closer to 1984

So it starts with wire tapping, continues on to Internet usage, and
then culminates with chips, GPS, and cameras everywhere. Doesn't
anybody remember 1984 and the story of Big Brother?