Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Will your ISP spy on you?

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently said that internet service providers should keep records of user activities. Now, in a coordinated move...
Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is proposing that ISPs be required to record information about Americans' online activities so that police can more easily "conduct criminal investigations." Executives at companies that fail to comply would be fined and imprisoned for up to one year.

In addition, Sensenbrenner's legislation--expected to be announced as early as this week--also would create a federal felony targeted at bloggers, search engines, e-mail service providers and many other Web sites. It's aimed at any site that might have "reason to believe" it facilitates access to child pornography--through hyperlinks or a discussion forum, for instance.
This is so broadly worded that it could apply to anyone. Obviously, kiddie porn is a false issue; the government already has all the tools it needs to track down the people who trade in that ghastly commodity.

What Gonzales and Sensenbrenner want is control. They know that the current antipathy toward Bush largely derives from independent internet writers. The government wants blackmail information on anyone who dares to criticize Fearless Leader. In a sense, this newly proposed legislation is of a piece with the assaults on net neutrality.

We could probably prevent a number of crimes and acts of terror if we allowed the government to install recording devices in every home and car. Does that mean we should? Tyranny ascends as privacy ends.

4 comments:

DrewL said...

The problem is that too many Americans - most of the self-described "patriotic, flag-waving" variety - are willing to sacrifice their privacy to their government because they "have nothing to hide." Isn't it ironic that most of these "Republicans" are supposed to be against such things?

Well, these people may have nothing to hide, and they may be doing nothing "wrong"...that is, until their government decides unilaterally that what they're doing IS wrong. And then where are they? In a prison cell for "doing nothing wrong." It's just so USSR.

Back in the US.
Back in the US.
Back in the USSR.

Ugh.

Anonymous said...

Insofar as this attempt to shut down internet dissent is concerned, it's too late. The cat is out of the bag, and Bush's NEGATIVE numbers (which are far more important than his "approval rating", are now only one point shy of Nixon's at his worst. At this point, all Rove/Bushco efforts at disinformation and media manipulation are doomed. Not even a Wedding Party II will save them now.

Anonymous said...

Of course it could apply to anyone! That's how they determine the status of terrorist. Anyone is a terrorist. So it follow that everyone is a potential terrorist - when in fact the only REAL terrorists are in the White House

Anonymous said...

You should understand that the Republic is dead. There is only one party in the US and it has 2 faces. Voting is controlled by computers and programmed for outcomes before anyone visits a polling place.

It's over. And it's not coming back.