FBI asking ISP's to retain your browsing habits for 2 years

[Phillyman]

I really thought they were already doing this type of stuff....

WASHINGTON--The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.

FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users' "origin and destination information," a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.

FBI director Robert Mueller

(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET)

As far back as a 2006 speech, Mueller had called for data retention on the part of Internet providers, and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited, which few if any currently do.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10448060-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

[Data]

I want to know who is going to be monitoring the FBI?

Every server contains a log of addresses and every self respecting service provider keeps these records from being given away. Police or FBI have to get a warrant from a judge to demand this type of sensitive information. It takes too long right now if there is a matter of security at stake and police need some sort of evidence to justify this. Judges get in alot of trouble if they give some hot-dog cop a license to kill like he's Eddie Murphy or Dirty Harry.

This will probably unfold in favor of the FBI's wishes in that ISP's will keep records for two years but nothing's gonna change the due process of getting a warrant for this information.

[Mister Zero]

There's probably some warrant work-around in the "Patriot Act" somewhere for all I know. This country really bugs me sometimes. I'd like to move, but nowhere is much better, I'm sure.

I always thought they had stuff like this set up already, too. I guess we'd see a lot more of the population getting busted for internet crimes if we did, though.

[KiwiArcader]

Well ... kiddie porners should be taken out to a forest somewhere, copper spinnered and then dropped into a deep pit IMHO.

However, while Governments have the best intentions when they first come up with these schemes, they usually morph into an altogether different beast from what the original intent was in the first place. Then a different party is in power and they decide they want changes and it morphs again. Then an event occurs ... 9/11 for example ... and all of a sudden someone's collecting everything and looking for any little thing that they think indicates you are a threat to society. And they wrap it up in so many layers there's no way the public has any ability to determine accountability or have any say in what is being collected.

Where does it stop? Genetics? Will we get to the point as seen in Gattaca where genes determine your place in society? Time will tell I guess....