U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

By SAUL HANSELL and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: June 2, 2006
NY TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/washington/02records.html?
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"The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep 
records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid 
law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do 
so."

...

"The department proposed that the records be retained for as long 
as two years. Most Internet companies discard such records after 
a few weeks or months.In its current proposal, the department 
appears to be trying to determine whether Internet companies will 
voluntarily agree to keep certain information or if it will need 
to seek legislation to require them to do so."

...

"An executive of one Internet provider that was represented at 
the first meeting said Mr. Gonzales began the discussion by 
showing slides of child pornography from the Internet. But later, 
one participant asked Mr. Mueller why he was interested in the 
Internet records. The executive said Mr. Mueller's reply was, "We 
want this for terrorism."

At the meeting with privacy experts yesterday, Justice Department 
officials focused on wanting to retain the records for use in 
child pornography and terrorism investigations. But they also 
talked of their value in investigating other crimes like 
intellectual property theft and fraud, said Marc Rotenberg, 
executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center 
in Washington, who attended the session.

"It was clear that they would go beyond kiddie porn and terrorism 
and use it for general law enforcement," Mr. Rotenberg said."

Chuck Hamaker
Associate University Librarian Collections and Technical Services
Atkins Library
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, NC 28223