"The House Republicans'first major technology initiative is about to be unveiled: a push to force Internet companies to keep track of what their users are doing."
"A House panel [Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee] ... is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow morning to discuss forcing Internet providers, and perhaps Web companies as well, to store records of their users' activities for later review by police. One focus will be on reviving a dormant proposal for data retention that would require companies to store Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for two years. ... For now, the scope of any mandatory data retention law remains hazy. It could mean forcing companies to store data for two years about what Internet addresses are assigned to which customers (Comcast said in 2006 that it would be retaining those records for six months). Or it could be far more intrusive, sweeping in online service providers, and involve keeping track of e-mail and instant-messaging correspondence and what Web pages users visit. Some Democratic politicians have previously called for data retention laws to extend to domain name registries and Web hosting companies and even social-networking sites."
"A House panel [Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee] ... is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow morning to discuss forcing Internet providers, and perhaps Web companies as well, to store records of their users' activities for later review by police. One focus will be on reviving a dormant proposal for data retention that would require companies to store Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for two years. ... For now, the scope of any mandatory data retention law remains hazy. It could mean forcing companies to store data for two years about what Internet addresses are assigned to which customers (Comcast said in 2006 that it would be retaining those records for six months). Or it could be far more intrusive, sweeping in online service providers, and involve keeping track of e-mail and instant-messaging correspondence and what Web pages users visit. Some Democratic politicians have previously called for data retention laws to extend to domain name registries and Web hosting companies and even social-networking sites."
