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Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 11:35:03 AM EST
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by TChris

As you surf the web today, keep in mind that Alberto Gonzales might take a keen interest in your viewing habits.

The U.S. is asking Internet companies including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and AOL to preserve records of customers' Web activity to aid terrorism and child pornography investigations. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller made the request last week at a meeting with industry executives, said Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman. More talks are scheduled for today and tomorrow. ...

The agency has asked Internet companies to retain records such as lists of e-mails sent and received or information on Web searches.

Whether Gonzales is interested in your perusal of TalkLeft is unknown.

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    Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records | 23 comments (23 topical)
    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 11:55:02 AM EST
    In a CNN report yesterday, it was mentioned that the internet companies retain records for 2 years, on the bloomberg report it doesn't say...has the request changed since yesterday?

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 11:57:18 AM EST
    I seem to remember the FBI pushback that because of the NSA wiretapping, they were already overloaded. Where do they get the manpower to sift through all this? I want to tell them to get a life, there's real work to do out there.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 12:31:09 PM EST
    This does not make sense. Then again the Government should be classified as technically stupid. Anyone here try to go to the vatican site. Or any other on the ISP "Whitelist". Talk about being stupid. Who is Gonzales someone whose new to the internet. Did he learn how to use a computer yesterday. Perhap's no one told him what a Whitelist is every single god damn ISP has one. "The Internet Is Already Regulated"

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#4)
    by desertswine on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 12:55:10 PM EST
    Whether Gonzales is interested in your perusal of TalkLeft is unknown.
    Well it can't be discounted.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 12:56:35 PM EST
    I, for one, am not such an important person as to merit massive personal government attention of my internet habits.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 01:07:44 PM EST
    I, for one, am not such an important person as to merit massive personal government attention of my internet habits.
    Wow... What an ignorant and misguided response. People like you are part of the problem in regards to the slow erosion of our civil liberties. Your "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain attitude" is disgusting to say the least.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#7)
    by Johnny on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 02:58:12 PM EST
    Why are the wrongwingers so terrified of freedom?

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 03:00:44 PM EST
    I, for one, am not such an important person as to merit massive personal government attention of my internet habits.
    You would be if the Gov't or FBI had a "gut feeling" that your "are" a member of a terrorist organization.(fictious statement)

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 03:52:10 PM EST
    I actually have TalkLeft as one of my "favorites." I'm finished. I'll probably lose my job. No point in even applying for a government position. Forget about getting on an airplane from now on...

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 06:31:16 PM EST
    In 1997, I predicted that the government would regulate personal usage of the Internet. At the time, my dot-com cohorts strenuously disagreed. They all believed that the Internet would soon provide FREE unlimited access to all forms of quality content; including reference material, music, video, and news. Nearly 10 years later, we see the direction it's all going. Free music is becoming more and more rare, thanks to RIAA lawsuits and malicious hackers. We can't even "own" the rights to the music we download anymore. Corporations want to force feed us expensive subscription services. As we speak, the Communications giants and their compliant D.C. allies are forcing through that Internet communications act that gives them the ability to force us to pay for bandwidth and allows them discretion in regulating access to content. Again, in hopes of selling expensive subscription services. ...and as far as "news" and reference info. I said in 1997 that the Internet would give us, "exponentially increasing access to an exponentially increasing amount of bad information." While Talk Left is somewhat informative, most blogs are nothing more than opinion masquerading as fact. News is increasingly nothing more than propaganda - and more so than in years past, "news" organizations and others have the ability to spread misleading information all over the globe long before it can be scrutinized for credibility. In fact, credibility has been thrown out the window entirely. It's all about opinion now. Wikipedia is full of propaganda written by dubious sources...and this really burns me up...OUR CHILDREN our using it as reference material in schools. Finally, in 1997 I told my colleagues that the Internet would eventually become nothing more than an online shopping mall. I was only partially correct. I should have added that home data connections would be a primary tool of the government and Corporations to control the behavior and attitudes of Americans through all manner of underhanded means.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#12)
    by Aaron on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 06:36:16 PM EST
    mainsailset You're right, the FBI and most other government intelligence agencies have had to adapt, contracting out the masses of data that they collect to an army of computer geeks who work relatively clandestinely for the government collating data. Just think your personal information is being perused by some 40-year-old virgin who lives in his mother's basement. He's the one making the initial decision whether or not you could be a threat to national security. Now isn't that comforting. With some of the new software that they've got like carnivore and others, government computer analysts/hackers can literally peer into almost any computer that's online, unless it's a Mac, you have to have a whole other system to hack Apples properly, or so I hear. The only way you would know your files were being browsed is if you paid special attention to your processor and hard drive usage. My advice is to get a monitor, like Systemometer, that monitors and logs computer activity. Rest assured talkleft kids, that someone somewhere is watching you and following the Internet trail of bread crumbs you leave everywhere you go. But don't worry, just know the law backwards and forwards, don't do anything "wrong," don't piss off the wrong people, and and you should be just fine. Unless of course you're Muslim American, you guys should just abandon all hope. Oh, and by the way those letters you get from people in Nigeria tell you the one of your relatives has died and left you $50 million, and all they need is your personal information and bank account number to transfer the money to you, that's the CIA setting you up. :)

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#13)
    by Sailor on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 06:45:37 PM EST
    Our policy is that all records are destroyed after a week. We just can't afford the disk space and they have nothing to do with the services we provide.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#14)
    by Aaron on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 06:48:14 PM EST
    Tampa Student Stop screwing up the curve, you're just too damn intelligent to be commenting here or on any blog for that matter. My God woman (assuming you're a woman), you wouldn't want these discussions to become substantive would you? Get back to your real life at the University and leave this Internet stuff to us crazies, lest you deflate all our fragile egos with your incessantly fact-based banter. :-)

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#15)
    by Che's Lounge on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 10:12:25 PM EST
    You think my name doesn't make their screens light up like it's christmas?

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#16)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Thu Jun 01, 2006 at 10:31:00 PM EST
    They already took down Paul In LA and charliedontsurf... :'(

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 05:39:39 AM EST
    Private detectives and hackers can find everything about me already if they care to, laws or no laws. There aren't enough people on the staff of the government to personally peruse the website visits of ordinary folks. Often when people can't argue the merits of a given argument, they call the other person names (e.g. ignorant) or bring out the "slippery slope" canard.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#18)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 06:12:19 AM EST
    Private detectives and hackers can find everything about me already if they care to, laws or no laws.
    Private detectives and hackers don't even come close to posing as much of a threat to an individuals' civil liberties since they cannot bring about a prosecution or legislate bullsh*t nanny protection laws.
    There aren't enough people on the staff of the government to personally peruse the website visits of ordinary folks.
    That is not the point. It is bullsh*t method of diverting the attention away from the issue at hand.
    Often when people can't argue the merits of a given argument, they call the other person names (e.g. ignorant) or bring out the "slippery slope" canard.
    Often, when people try to promote the "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" attitude, they resort to creating bullsh*t strawmen. This is a slow erosion of our civil liberties. The "government" has a very poor track record in regards to power grabbing regardless of the party in power. As the cliche states, give them an inch and they will take a mile all in the bullsh*t context of protecting the general population. By the way, I called your response ignorant. I also called your response misguided and your attitude disgusting. If I had called you an idiot for making your deplorable comment (making a general reference to your overall character), then you could have made a claim for name-calling.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 06:32:11 AM EST
    Often when people can't argue the merits of a given argument, they call the other person names (e.g. ignorant) or bring out the "slippery slope" canard.
    Here is some documented proof in regards to the slow erosion of our civil liberties. This isn't some fantasy slippery slope argument, it is real and it is happening now. The USAG asking Internet companies to preserve records of customers' Web activity is just one more step in the process. I called your response ignorant because you fail to see the big picture.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#20)
    by marty on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 07:07:21 AM EST
    WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH???? Hey, Abu...if you're reading this: ****** off, you crooked *******!!!!!!!!

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#21)
    by roy on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 09:10:38 AM EST
    Tampa Student, one minor & slightly OT correction,
    As we speak, the Communications giants and their compliant D.C. allies are forcing through that Internet communications act that gives them the ability to force us to pay for bandwidth and allows them discretion in regulating access to content.
    The communications giants (and small ISPs) already have that ability, they just don't currently exercise it in a way that p*sses many people off. Congress is considering stripping that ability away by mandating Neutrality. This is a decent resource on the subject.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#22)
    by Johnny on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 10:56:51 AM EST
    Well, I don't see what the big deal is... Stripping our freedoms one small step at a time leaves us feeling no pain when the end comes. Remember, by voting for Bushco, you are responsible for the erosion of true freedom in this country. Thank you for that.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#23)
    by Ernesto Del Mundo on Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 10:51:59 PM EST
    rogan...snap out of it please, and read this "quaint" bit of prose before it gets officially waxed by Abu Gonzales et al: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

    Re: Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records (none / 0) (#24)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Jun 03, 2006 at 02:49:58 PM EST
    In the quaint days before telephones and the internet, that was easy. And since when is an internet server part of a person's house or person? No one has said that the govt. can randomly walk into your house and peek at your computer without a warrant. When someone proposes that, let me know.

    Gonzales Asks ISP's to Preserve Records | 23 comments (23 topical)