Gonzales pressures ISPs on data retention

TalkBack 18 of 40:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

How could ZDNet *possibly* get the story so wrong???

The story starts off:

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller on Friday urged telecommunications officials to record their customers' Internet activities, CNET News.com has learned.

Given that lead paragraph, I can understand people's concerns about "spying". What I can't understand, however, is how ZDNet, a technology site, could lead off with such a deceptive paragraph. Gonzales and Mueller are talking about retaining data the ISPs already collect, not expanding that data. And retaining that data in and of itself says nothing about how the government gets at it.

The privacy arguments advanced in the article also seem weak:

Privacy advocates have been alarmed by the idea of legally mandated data retention, saying that, while child exploitation may be the justification today, those records would be available in all kinds of criminal and civil suits--including terrorism, tax evasion, drug, and even divorce cases.

Maybe you could make a case that a divorce isn't a serious enough thing to justify looking into someone's Internet use, but why should terrorists, tax evaders, and drug dealers get a free ride just because they do their business on the Internet? What possible sense does that make?

I can see the ISPs objecting to retaining the data, but only on resource grounds. Keeping massive amounts of data for a long time could get expensive -- particularly when politicians throw the word "permanent" out there. On that ground, I can see them being reluctant. But to protect terrorists, tax evadors, or drug dealers? C'mon, get serious.

Posted by: bhartman36   Posted on: 05/27/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• Unrivaled support from Novell, now available for Red Hat Novell If Linux is going to power your mission-critical applications, you'd ... Download Now
• The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now