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23
Feb
Republican politicians in the ‘Land of the Free’, are proposing a law that would force ISPs and Wi-Fi providers to keep logs of users for a period of one year to aid police investigations.¬† Here at CPB we have reported on such laws in Egypt and elsewhere and it is now worrying to see such a trend creeping into a country that prides itself as being one of the freest in the world.¬† This would also affect schools, universities, password-protect LANs and WANs basically all ways and means of getting online.
Authorities are know for their ad-hoc and often flawed decisions in pursuing any matter and such a law would be prone to abuse, I mean who gets to decide that a particular action is criminal and also with corporates demonstrating sheer greed for profit what will protect this logs/data from misuse by the ISPs
Sen. John Cornyn who supports the laws says:
Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level.
surely there are other ways of achieving this.
This is another way of stifling online freedoms as individuals would be put off from going online, as we all know they are issues that due to concerns for personal safety are best broadcast anonymously e.g whistle-blowing and such a law would but the individual in harm’s way.
Recently I was interviewed about The Global Online Freedom Act that the EU wants to pass and my sentiments were that such acts are well and good but when countries that pass these acts do not adhere to them, the acts dont work.  The law proposed in America is totally opposite of what GOFA is trying to achieve incidentally a similar bill to the EU was introduced to the US Congress in 2007 and garnered support.
The preamble of the US version of GOFA says:
To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes.
To all extents and purposes the act Sen. John Cornyn supports is completely and utterly inconsistent with GOFA.  What the US authorities would be doing is the same as what the dictatorial regime of Egypt does.
It seems authorities everywhere are in a contest to see who can control the internet most in the countries.
- Published by Victor Ngeny in: Alerts Reports
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2 Responses to “Internet Safety Bill and Privacy Concerns”
“Keeping our children safe requires cooperation on the local, state, federal, and family level.”
I agree wholeheartedly!
Federal, state, and local enforcement personnel need to enforce laws, track and find lawmakers, and prosecute them when possible.
And families need to PROTECT THEIR OWN DANG KIDS AND NOT EXPECT ME TO DO IT FOR THEM! (you can tell I am serious about this because I used all caps…)
Seriously – parents need to watch their kids, teach them what is safe and not safe, and make sure their kids act in a safe manner. You do it for yours, and I will do the same for my kids. If I do see your kid doing something unsafe, I will try to prevent that action and let you know what they were doing. So, if your kid and mine were surfing at my house, and I caught them doing something they should not be doing, I will stop them, express my displeasure (my kids hate it when I use that phrase), and let the visitor’s parents know what happened.
But as far as keeping logs of everything that has gone through my wireless router…. Sorry – that is not going to happen. I protect my family and myself by using the security features built into the router. I don’t grant access to just anybody, so I will not keep a 2 year log just in case somebody manages to break in.
You see, it is like this: I have a back yard. There is a shed in the back yard. It is possible that somebody might one day decide to sneak behind that shed and smoke pot, or even sell drugs. I try to keep my property secure, but it is still possible. Using the ‘logic’ behind this bill, I MUST put a camera that can record EVERYTHING that goes on behind that shed, and keep the recording for 2 years.
Yeah – right.
I am a big fan of obeying laws, and those that help society in enforcing those laws and keeping us safe. However, I am not such a big fan that I would agree to become part of the Big Brother Brigade, and do anything that comes close to encroaching on personal privacy such as this bill proposes.
Quotes from the CNN article: “The legal definition of electronic communication
service is any service which provides to users thereof the ability to
send or receive wire or electronic communications. The U.S. Justice
Department’s position is that any service that provides others with
means of communicating electronically qualifies.”
……………..Does that mean that all phone conversations fall under the
same requirement?…………………………
quote from CNN Article:
“That sweeps in not just public Wi-Fi access points, but password-protected ones too, and applies to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, libraries, schools, universities, and even government agencies. Voice over IP services may be covered too.”
Note: ” Even government agencies”… yeah right… who is going to demand
that government agencies turn over their records ? Who guards the guards?
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