Posted on 08/03/2011 9:04:31 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The House Judiciary Committee just approved a bill (H.R. 1981) requiring Internet service providers to spy on their users and retain 12 months of data -- data that could be used to identify where you surf and what you post online. From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, quoting their Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston:
The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recognized. Requiring Internet companies to redesign and reconfigure their systems to facilitate government surveillance of Americans' expressive activities is simply un-American. Such a scheme would be as objectionable to our Founders as the requiring of licenses for printing presses or the banning of anonymous pamphlets. Today's vote is therefore very disappointing, but we are especially thankful to GOP Representatives Sensenbrenner, Issa and Chaffetz, who chose principle over party-line in opposing this dangerous tech mandate. We hope that bipartisan opposition will grow as the bill makes its way to the House floor and more lawmakers are educated about this anti-privacy, anti-free speech, anti-innovation proposal.
Every time we let our rights be grabbed without a peep it makes it that much easier to take a big fistful of them the next time. Speak up, sheeple!
UPDATE: To make it a little easier for you to speak up, here's the link to get your Congressperson's (or Congressturd's) email address, and a letter by 2Wolves1Sheep:
I am writing in strong opposition to HR 1981 ("Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011″) due to its provision mandating that Internet Service Providers maintain 12 months of personal information, including browsing and posting activity.
This bill that you co-sponsored is a direct assault on my right to privacy. In your admirable zeal to protect children, you have discarded the right to privacy for millions of Americans, and this is shameful.
I am certain that children can be protected without invasive, big brother monitoring of the activities of law-abiding citizens. I hope that when this bill comes to the floor you will support amendments to strike that provision from the bill. If not, it looks like I will need to count on other peoples' representatives to look out for me and my rights.
It's so easy. I just sent this message above to my nitwit of a representative, the just-elected Janice Hahn. Click and send! Click and send! In the age of the Internet, it's easy to make your voice heard. Speak out to defend our rights...now...today!
PING!
Oh dear—we’ll soon be labeled as terrorists.........
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1981ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr1981ih.pdf
Here is a link to the bill text.
Here is the relevant section that requires ISP’s to keep track of the IP addy’s of customers and keep the IP addy tied to a customer’s identity:
SEC. 4. RETENTION OF CERTAIN RECORDS BY ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 2703 of title 18, United
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the folowing:
‘‘(h) RETENTION OF CERTAIN RECORDS.—A provider of an electronic communication service or remote
computing service shall retain for a period of at least 18
months the temporarily assigned network addresses the
service assigns to each account, unless that address is
transmitted by radio communication (as defined in section
3 of the Communications Act of 1934).’’.
(b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Congress that records retained pursuant to section 2703(h)
of title 18, United States Code, should be stored securely
to protect customer privacy and prevent against breaches
of the records.
....................................
I can’t find where in the bill it requires ISP’s to track where you go or what you do, just the IP addy. If you find that section let me know. Bad enough, but not as bad as many are making it out to be. The porn industry is upset, though, because of some of the other provisions.
Soooo...place gaps in your computer/internet history.
I just read the bill and was going to post the same thing. It doesn’t require an ISP to record any of your activity, just keep a record of what IP address it assigns customers, which I suspect most major ISPs do anyway.
But it’s for the children!
/s
It is still an incursion into net freedom, a further step to eliminating net anonymity. Leave us alone! The web is Power To The People, that the lefties used to chant, but they never thought it would be used against them!
I wonder if the child porn industry- and there must be one if there are so many busts- is behind stirring up hysteria about the bill.
I agree, and kudos to Issa and Chaffetz for standing up like men. I don’t know why the republicans should be doing any business with the Obama justice department. That said, the article is somewhere between lie and hyperbole, and that ultimately doesn’t help the cause.
EIGHTEEN-MINUTE gaps...
Always possible that the perverts are making a ruckus, but I trust Ms. Alkon enough, that I would think she would mention that if it were true.
IF the courts uphold the Constitution my sense is that a warrant would be required to disclose the records, IOW anyone who wants the IP would have to show cause. Not much different from phone logs IMO.
I really like http://thomas.loc.gov , it cuts to truth so fast. As far as holding a politician’s feet to the fire, can’t be beat. Recently they’ve delayed posting new bills, but it mostly is right there, I think of it as the most dangerous site on the web.
I frequently use it to debunk some of the wild emails I get about phony bills, or about things that are not really in the bill at all, like the horrible Food Safety Act, that many thought was going to outlaw all seeds not sold by Monsanto and require registration of backyard garden plots.
Tor Project: Anonymity Online
http://www.torproject.org/
Let me get this straight,politicians who proved to be the biggest perverts on the planet want to protect us from perverts on the web?They’ve done more damage to this country than any sicko on the internet ever could dream of.
Is anyone surprised? We have totalitarians running the country, after all.
I wrote my 3 Representatives.
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