FBI director wants ISPs to keep records of customers' online activities

w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r · October 19, 2006

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.

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Law enforcement groups claim that by the time they contact Internet service providers, customers' records may have been deleted in the routine course of business. Industry representatives, however, say that if police respond to tips promptly instead of dawdling, it would be difficult to imagine any investigation that would be imperiled.

It's not clear exactly what a data retention law would require. One proposal would go beyond Internet providers and require registrars, the companies that sell domain names, to maintain records too. And during private meetings with industry officials, FBI and Justice Department representatives have cited the desirability of also forcing search engines to keep logs--a proposal that could gain additional law enforcement support after AOL showed how useful such records could be in investigations.

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At the moment, Internet service providers typically discard any log file that's no longer required for business reasons such as network monitoring, fraud prevention or billing disputes. Companies do, however, alter that general rule when contacted by police performing an investigation--a practice called data preservation.

A 1996 federal law called the Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act regulates data preservation. It requires Internet providers to retain any "record" in their possession for 90 days "upon the request of a governmental entity."

http://news.com.com/FBI+director+wants+ISP...ml?tag=nefd.top

A related article on the same subject:

A Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives said Thursday that she plans to introduce legislation next week that would force Internet providers to record customer information for one year.

Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado said that she is working with Republicans Reps. Ed Whitfield, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee, and Joe Barton, chairman of the full committee, to finalize language mandating a controversial practice known as data retention.

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DeGette's bill is expected to be consistent with repeated calls for mandatory data retention in recent months from Gonzales and from 49 state attorneys general.

http://news.com.com/Data+retention+bill+ex...283.html?tag=nl