U.S. Internet Snooping Bill

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http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/snooping_bill/
Demand Progress wrote:Congress Pushing Broad New Internet Snooping Bill

"A direct assault on Internet users" is what the ACLU is calling it. Yesterday a U.S. House committee approved HR 1981, a broad new Internet snooping bill. They want to force Internet service providers to keep track of and retain their customers' information -- including your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, and 25 other civil liberties and privacy groups have expressed our opposition to this legislation. Will you join us, by emailing your lawmakers today? Just use the form at right.

They've shamelessly dubbed it the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act," but our staunchest allies in Congress are calling it what it is: an all-encompassing Internet snooping bill. ISPs would collect and retain your data whether or not you're accused of a crime.

CNet Reports:

Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill said, "'It represents a data bank of every digital act by every American' that would 'let us find out where every single American visited Web sites."

"The bill is mislabeled," said Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the panel. "This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It's creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes."
I get the feeling that this particular source is a bit crazy, and in their zeal to publish this, they have left out some important points (ie: the true extent of this bill). Nonetheless, the gist of the thing is there.

I wonder how long it'll be before the UK government follows suit like a little lost puppy.

Re: U.S. Internet Snooping Bill

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Don't most ISP's already have all that information. That's how they send you a bill to pay for service. Kind of hard to do without your name or address. If you send them a check, they have your bank account number. If you pay with a credit card, they have that. The problem occurs when they share such info with others.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: U.S. Internet Snooping Bill

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Yeah, I think this bill actually goes further than that (rumours of browsing history to be logged), the source there is fairly poor. I'll see if I can find something else. I'm pretty sure though that the bill means that said information has to be retained even after leaving an ISP.

Re: U.S. Internet Snooping Bill

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If so that's clearly a constitutional violation. Unfortunately our current supreme court has too many Regan/Bushes appointees who put the interests of business above civil liberties or paying attention to the constitution.
Just cut them up like regular chickens