February 15, 2007 | Sex & Society

Bill would have ISPs track your surfing

You can usually rely on the Internet for anonymity in researching, communicating and masturbating in the privacy of your own home. That privacy is in jeopardy once again, this time thanks to U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), whose  proposed legislation would require Internet service providers (ISPs) to keep records on their subscribers' online activities.

Smith's measure, part of the Internet SAFETY Act,  is supposedly intended to protect children from online predators, says the Washington Post. Like many similar proposals that Washington has devised, opponents worry that it would do more harm than good, trampling upon civil liberties in the name of  "saving the children."

"This bill is so incredibly bad that it opens up a whole array of things that can go wrong, because there's nothing in this legislation to prevent the attorney general from simply saying, 'Save everything forever,'" said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of advocacy group People for Internet Responsibility, who suggests Smith's proposal is too vague.

Under Smith's bill, ISPs would be required, at the bare minimum, to provide law enforcement officials with subscribers' names and addresses in relation to a suspicious Internet protocol address. Investigators could only gain access to that information with a subpoena and would be forbidden to use the system to track law-abiding citizens on the Internet.

But opponents insist that mandatory data-retention would only increase the chances of targeting innocent Internet users. Furthermore, the Smith proposal is very open-ended.

"The Smith proposal would give the attorney general carte blanche to require service providers to keep all information imaginable on every one of their users," said Kate Dean, executive director of the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association, which represents companies such as AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo!

Dean and her peers fear that such broad measures could leave vulnerable to government scrutiny the content of people's emails, instant messages and Internet browsing histories. What's more, they suggest that the sheer cost of such massive data collection, storage and maintenance could handicap the industry.

While the chances of the Smith bill passing into law is remote, it's yet another example of legislators making hay of their constituents' fears: whether it's terror or Internet predators, there will always be  politicians advocating  for  greater security at the price of personal liberty.

• Bill would make ISPs keep data on users [Washington Post]