Justice Dept. Wants Providers to Retain Internet Data
The Justice Department will ask Congress to make it mandatory for Internet service providers to retain data on their users’ activity. Law enforcement officials can already ask for data to be preserved, but Justice would like to have more robust snooping capabilities in order to investigate and prosecute “almost every type of crime.” ISPs are required to make the records they do have available to law enforcement upon request, and many Internet providers, including cellular networks, telcos and cable companies, already retain data for government access. According to this CNET report, the Justice Department would like to force providers large and small to retain information. Not surprisingly, the push for mandatory data retention originated in the Bush administration.
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on January 25, 2011. Filed under