FBI anal-retentive

[Eugen Leitl]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061018-8017.html

FBI head calls for data retention rules

10/18/2006 10:29:11 AM, by Nate Anderson

Do you hear it? That rhythmic beat is the sound of the data retention drum
being thumped by politicians and security figures. On Monday, at a conference
of international police chiefs, head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
told his audience that terrorists were using the Internet to radicalize
without having to travel. Yesterday, FBI Director Robert Mueller showed up at
the same conference and delivered a similar message. "Terrorists coordinate
their plans cloaked in the anonymity of the Internet, as do violent sexual
predators prowling chat rooms," he said, according to CNet.

Mueller took a further step, though, arguing that the US needs stricter data
retention guidelines. "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. The solution? Forcing ISPs to retain data for set
periods of time.

Neither of these arguments is anything new. The Internet is regularly trotted
out in speeches on terrorism; Mueller himself did it just weeks ago in a
speech to Chicago executives. "Instead of training camps, we have seen a rise
in websites that promote violent jihad and give step-by-step instructions on
how to build suicide vests and explosives," he told them.

Government officials have also pushed repeatedly for retention guidelines that
would control what sort of data an ISP must keep and for how long. Attorney
General Gonzales, in particular, has lobbied for new retention laws for some
time, arguing that they are necessary to help control child pornography and
exploitation.

The thing about retention laws is that they require all data to be maintained,
not simply the data from child pornographers and terrorists. This means that
such laws are usually favored by other, unrelated groups who would like access
to such log files. Groups like the music labels. In Europe, where retention
rules are already in place, the entertainment industry has already stated its
belief that the data should be available for use in the investigation of any
crime, even copyright infringement.

This makes some people nervous, including some in government. After the AOL
data release scandal broke, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a bill that would
put limits on how long ISPs can retain customer informationbexactly the
opposite approach of that favored by the law enforcement community. Don't
expect much action on such proposals with an election so near, though;
Markey's bill has been stalled in committee since February.

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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