Fight Big Brother!

While the Internet Safety Act is not the first bill to propose forced record retention of Internet traffic logs, it is by and large the most far reaching and demanding of such bills. While this lengthy bill has laudable provisions for the supposed prevention of child endangerment, it's requirement that virtually ever Internet access point in the country keep two years worth of utilization records is not just highly invasive it is ridiculously burdensome to small businesses and individuals.

Just because the European Parliament is comfortable with this level of potential privacy invasion does not mean that freedom-loving Americans should become so complacent on the issue. Proponents of such bills say that requiring Internet Service Providers to maintain activity logs for two years allows law enforcement to review past behavior once someone comes to their attention as a potential threat to young children. What ever happened to 'just cause'?

Now, let's talk about the REAL duck on the table. Have you read about any electronic records breaches lately? Hmmm??? So, the Government wants providers to keep two years of records on everyone's activities in case THEY need them to investigate your past history. Isn't it more likely that other savvy hackers will steal those records for malevolent purposes? Identity theft? Blackmail?

Oh, BTW, stop thinking that secure-HTTP will prevent data thieves from stealing your banking, health, and other private information. It was announced this week that the bad guys are improving their ability to sneak their way into your private HTTPS sessions

The Senate bill is S.436. The House bill is H.R.1076. Note them. Contact your representatives. Oppose them. I have written my own Representative, both my Senators, and the President. I've only done this three other times in the last 28 years.

Freedom to fork over all electronic records to the NSA

With every passing week the Bush Administration turns our country into a more overt police state. A new Senate bill will retroactively protect e-mail providers, search engines, Internet service providers and instant-messaging services from lawsuits brought by citizens whose privacy was violated when such organizations turned over electronic records to the NSA.

Here is the REALLY laughable aspect of this bill:

"Private companies who received legal assurances from the highest levels of government should not be dragged through the courts for their help with national security," Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.V.), the Intelligence Committee chairman and the bill's primary Democratic sponsor, said in a statement. "The onus is on the administration, not the companies, to ensure that the request is on strong legal footing, and if it is not, it is the administration that should be held accountable."

First off, West Virginians: Ditch this moron! (Some Democrat, huh? I thought those guys were supportive of Civil Liberties and Due Process. My mistake!)

Secondly, the current administration does not give a rat's butt about the legal footing of its actions and has yet to be seriously challenged on the legality of any of its actions.

Give me a break!