WASHINGTON, DC — The seemingly never-ending demand by federal agencies for access to more and more personal records continues with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urging Congress to require all Internet Service Providers to collect and preserve customer records for up to as many as two years — in case the information proves useful to detectives investigating child porn leads.AOL, Comcast, Google, Microsoft, and Verizon are among ISP’s that have been visited by Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller in their attempts to convince providers to do as the government wishes.
Although still resisting the idea of a mandated retention period, many ISPs have increased the time during which they hold onto customer information in the hopes of staving off legislation.
Justice Department officials insist that the information would be useful during child pornography investigations, although an anonymous informant who attended the secret meetings claims that the FBI let drop the fact that the records would also be viewed as possible evidence for terrorism investigations.
Gonzales testified before a Senate committee today that he was convinced the threat of child pornography outweighed industry concerns about customer privacy rights. “This is a problem that requires federal legislation,” he insisted, while addressing the Senate Banking Committee. “We need information. Information helps us make cases.”
According to Gonzales, it is the federal governments inability to view customer information that is the primary block to ending child pornography.
ISPs currently maintain customer surfing information anywhere from a few days to a year, but Gonzales wants a mandated and specific collection and retention period. During today’s hearing he pointed out that 49 state attorney generals had written a letter in June supporting the idea of a law such as he proposes.
Unsurprisingly, Gonzales’ increasingly aggressive stance on this issue has both ISPs and civil libertarians in a panic as they scramble to comprehend the implications for the internet, those individuals who use it, and the companies that make access possible. Previously existing tensions were not relieved earlier this year, when Google was taken to court by the Justice Department in an attempt to force the search engine giant to relinquish detailed information about customer searches. Verizon and other telephone companies have been sued by civil liberty groups that accuse them of handing over customer calling records when search warrants and other legal niceties were not in evidence.
Officials for the Justice Department insist that no proposal would require the content of a person’s communications to be retained. Further, they insist that the information would remain in the ISP’s control, obtained by the government only after a subpoena or other legal avenue.
