FBI director wants ISPs to track users

Cnet ^ | 10/17/2006 | Declan McCullagh

[Panerai]

FBI Director Robert Mueller on Tuesday called on Internet service providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year.

"Terrorists coordinate their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual predators prowling chat rooms," Mueller said in a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Boston.

"All too often, we find that before we can catch these offenders, Internet service providers have unwittingly deleted the very records that would help us identify these offenders and protect future victims," Mueller said. "We must find a balance between the legitimate need for privacy and law enforcement's clear need for access."

The speech to the law enforcement group, which approved a resolution on the topic earlier in the day, echoes other calls from Bush administration officials to force private firms to record information about customers. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for instance, told Congress last month that "this is a national problem that requires federal legislation."

Justice Department officials admit privately that data retention legislation is controversial enough that there wasn't time to ease it through the U.S. Congress before politicians left to campaign for re-election. Instead, the idea is expected to surface in early 2007

[rlmorel]

Uh oh...here we go.

I just came from a thread about Internet addiction...they are all going to be over here in a few minutes...:)

[Sir Gawain]

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, for instance, told Congress last month that "this is a national problem that requires federal legislation."

The words of a tyrant.

[TheLion]

Depending on what they want to track, anyone can be found guilty. Visiting a conservative site, for instance.

[Just mythoughts]

Well isn't this just tooooo interesting? All manner of questions have formed in my head.

[SpaceBar]

Robert Mueller can make a hermetic seal between his lips and my ass.

[A CA Guy]

The big problem is not the known ISP address regarding the net IMO, but when a wireless laptop goes to some public or free business source and does bad things or communications on the net. That kind of stuff is much harder to trace.

As far as privacy on the Internet, well consider it as private as a conversation on a public school bus.
Also figure any Email you ever made is on the net still and still accessible and readable by agencies wanting to get them.

[ikka]

This is precisely why Congress and the courts never focused on enforcing the level playing field in telecoms.

Much easier to just have to deal with Comcast or other cable co. and then deal with the local phone company that provides DSL.

[DCPatriot]

Yeah here I am.....reporting for duty.

If you always think about how a law can be abused by the police or government, then I don't like it.

If you feel that you are safely practicing your 1st amendment rights and aren't going to be in anyone's crosshairs...then it's a good law.

[Lord_Baltar]

Better watch out, language like that against the government might soon be enough to have you declared an enemy combatant.

[Wormwood]

I'm waiting for the usual suspects to come marching in and defend this LATEST assault on our liberties at the hands of our Benevolent Leaders.

[Wormwood]

Better watch out, language like that against the government might soon be enough to have you declared an enemy combatant.

Don't worry, between Congressional oversight and FISA Courts, such abuses could never happen here...oh, wait.

Never mind.

When we get to Gotmo, I call top bunk.

[weegee]

You'd be guilty of thoughtcrime. As was the judicial nominee who was asked if he was now or had ever been a member of a Constitutionalist organization.

Conservative thought WILL be criminalized if the left gets their way.

[Constantine XIII]

This plan is made of 24k failure.

[weegee]

Nick Berg loaned his laptop AND his email password to Jose Padilla in Oklahoma and we are told that nothing funny happened.

EVEN WITH email and internet wiretaps on US citizens, they'd still miss the plots. This is all for putting the pieces together after the fact.

We had the pieces to determine the 9-11 threat (if not the full scope). People were prevented from talking to one another.

[Niuhuru]

Amen to that. They need to fire Gonzales and scrap the department. The Homeland Security Deparment is going to cause more trouble than it's worth.

[mkjessup]

Nick Berg loaned his laptop AND his email password to Jose Padilla in Oklahoma and we are told that nothing funny happened.

Nick Berg's horrible death notwithstanding, what ARE the odds of something like that, eh?

I can't even begin to fathom them.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I'm a terrorist plotting my activities in America and I know this has been enacted. Here's what I do.

1. Communicate from public hot spots. Whether a McDonald's, Starbucks or public park with Wi-Fi access.

2. I use municipal provided Wi-Fi from a laptop by going to out of the way places. You know we'll have to start looking for guys using laptops in dark alleys.

3. I rent an apartment in a multi-unit dwelling and look for unsecured connections in my building never having subscribed to an ISP.

Those three scenarios alone make it 100% impossible for this to be an effective law enforcement or intelligence tool. There are way too many ways to access the internet on shared connections.

I didn't even start on using libraries, Kinko's/FedEx stores wired connections where public internet access is possible on a wired connection.

As much as I would like to see government have tools to track would be terrorists this has more problems than solutions.

[Niuhuru]

"Benevolent Leaders"

Sounds like a fluffy name for a deranged triumverate of dictators. Much like "Dear Leader" is for Kim Jong Il.

[Niuhuru]

Or if Hillary gets elected.