More Online Anti-Privacy Legislation

[enlytend]

Who could possibly object to a bill labeled the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act?" (HR 1981)

What if I said it was brought to you by Lamar Smith, of SOPA fame?

Basically, what HR1981 does is make it mandatory for any "commercial provider of an electronic communication service " including ISP's, social networking sites, email services, cloud storage services) to store your personal information (including name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, bank account numbers) along with a full history of every IP address you have used for the past 18 months.

So builds a multi-point database of everything you've done online in the past 18 months, along with your confidential financial information.

But that's OK if it's for law enforcement and protecting children from pornographers, right?

Here's what the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has to say:

that same data could become available to civil litigants in private lawsuits–whether it’s the RIAA trying to identify downloaders, a company trying to uncover and retaliate against an anonymous critic, or a divorce lawyer looking for dirty laundry. These
databases would also be a new and valuable target for black hat hackers, be they criminals trying to steal identities or foreign governments trying to unmask anonymous dissidents.

The bill does say that:

Access to a record or information required to be retained under this subsection may not be compelled by any person or other entity that is not a governmental entity.

OK ... so the RIAA or whoever convinces the governmental entity to "compell" the access. Whatever. BTW, note that it doesn't require these "governmental entities" to have a court order...

Aside from the privacy issues, it gives identity thieves some very tempting targets. Hack the data storage node with the weakest security.

Here's the bill, if anyone wants to read it. Not that there aren't some good things in it, there are. BUT once again it's a wolf in sheep's clothing - dangerously broad legislation wrapped up in the guise of something that seems innocuous.

www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr1981rh/pdf/BILLS-112hr1981rh.pdf

 

[Veronika11]

I'm all for protecting children from pornogrophy, BUT I don't see how this bill would cut down on those cases.
I also don't see the point in the police being able to pull this kind of information if one is not even part of an investigation..
If this bill becomes a law it would definitely be a sad day for our privacy...

 

[hopkism]

Doesn't G00GLE already own this information anyways?

 

[enlytend]

Not for people who use Bing.

And highly unlikely they'd ever have all the information neatly tied together. If they DID have it, then law enforcement would be dealing directly with them on child pornography cases. It's not so simple to track these people down.

BUT, that doesn't mean it's OK for rest of us to have to give up the privacy and security of our personal data in the attempt.

 

[Veronika11]

BUT, that doesn't mean it's OK for rest of us to have to give up the privacy and security of our personal data in the attempt.

exactly. This bill/law would mostly affect innocent people instead of those monsters..

 

[liquidcherry]

I start to think that the SOPA/PIPA upset was sort of a disguise operation to reflect from this little monster.....or ACTPA...what's next....

cheers

liquid

 

[enlytend]

There are legislators who think we should all be watched and they're going to keep trying to hide this (and their other agendas*) in one bill or another. It's up to those of us who care to pay attention and not let them get away with it.





*UIGEA, anyone? Legislation to squash online poker, hidden in an anti-terrorism bill.