Fergie's Tech Blog

Backer of ISP Snooping Slams Industry

Anne Broache and Declan McCullagh write on C|Net News:

Congress' leading proponent of forcing Internet service providers to retain records about their users' activities lashed out at the industry on Wednesday, saying such a federal law will be a "very minor burden" to bear.

Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, said at a House of Representatives hearing that new laws were necessary to thwart child pornographers and other Internet predators. Investigations into illicit behavior have been hampered because data may be routinely deleted in the normal course of business, DeGette and other data retention proponents claim.

"I am horrified that the provider community is not working with us on this because it seems to me to be a very simple piece of legislation and I'm going to continue to fight for it."

That happens to be a bipartisan view. CNET News.com was the first to report last June that the U.S. Justice Department was quietly shopping around the idea of mandatory data retention.

posted by Fergie @ 5/03/2006 05:07:00 PM