FBI wants Internet records kept 2 years: source (1 Viewer)

[massive_attack]

Note : Granted, this is not an 'official release' but hey, let's talk about it !

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WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants U.S. Internet providers to retain Web address records for up to two years to aid investigations into terrorism and pornography, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The request came during a May 26 meeting between U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller with top executives at companies like Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL.

"I think there is less of a willingness to passively go along with this type of request than there might have been a year ago," said the source, mentioning the recent uproar over a report that telephone companies had provided call records to the National Security Agency.

A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the meeting but was not immediately available to comment on how long law enforcement officials wanted the records retained.

"This meeting was an initial discussion for the Attorney General to gather information and to solicit input from Internet service provider executives on the issues associated with data retention," said spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Gonzales presented blurred images of child pornography and explained why he thought retaining data was important to those investigations. At issue was Internet protocol addresses.

When one industry executive questioned how long the government wanted the records kept, Mueller said for two years and that the data would also be used for anti-terrorism purposes, said the source.

Well well well, this sounds like a horrible idea.

Mass internet data browsing retention ? No thanks.

What happens when the database security is breached ? Or when the company decides to somehow legally sell this information. Oh that sounds like a real hoot. Or what happens when they start busting people for non-terrorist crimes ? Sure, they're criminals but the government isn't saying "hey, let us look at what you do on the net so we can bust you for petty crimes".


Not to mention this type of data retention will create a MASSIVE data base. You thought the supposed NSA call tracking database was big? This will make it look like a phone book for a small town. The volume of data is damn near incalcuable. The cost of all this will of course, be transfered down to the consumer. Yea for us ! We pay for our own spying on two fronts : we pay the government to do their job and we pay the private companies to keep that data for them ! Yea for us !