Congress Tries To Hide Massive Data Retention Law By Pretending It's An Anti-Child Porn Law
from the oh-come-on dept
We all know the cynical and obnoxious trick by politicians to get questionable laws passed by claiming that it's "for the children." The latest, however, is particularly nefarious. Some politicians (and lots of folks in law enforcement) have been pushing for the US government to adopt data retention laws for years. These laws would require online service providers to keep all sorts of data about users for many months, just in case law enforcement wants to come knocking later to get the details. Of course, data retention is controversial. You know what's not controversial? Being against child porn. We're all against child porn... so, rather than calling your bill a data retention law, why not refer to it as the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011. Yes, that's the bill put forth by Texas Congressional Rep. Lamar Smith, and co-sponsored by Reps. Bill Flores, Randy Forbes, Dutch Ruppersberger and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.But, for legitimate service providers, there are serious costs. On top of that, there are significant privacy issues -- and this is at the same time that we keep hearing about data leaks. You want to encourage more data leaks? Require companies hold onto data much longer than they need to do so. The really pernicious part in all of this is that it's really just a way for law enforcement to do an end run around the 4th Amendment. Julian Sanchez explains how this works:
Thanks to an unwise Supreme Court decision dating from the 70s, information about your private activites loses its Fourth Amendment protection when its held by a �third party� corporation, like a phone company or Internet provider. As many legal scholars have noted, however, this allows constitutional privacy safeguards to be circumvented via a clever two-step process. Step one: The government forces private businesses (ideally the kind a citizen in the modern world can�t easily avoid dealing with) to collect and store certain kinds of information about everyone�anyone might turn out to be a criminal, after all. No Fourth Amendment issue there, because it�s not the government gathering it! Step two: The government gets a subpoena or court order to obtain that information, quite possibly without your knowledge. No Fourth Amendment problem here either, according to the Supreme Court, because now they�re just getting a corporation�s business records, not your private records. It makes no difference that they�re only keeping those records because the government said they had to.But, of course, if you complain about this or argue against the law, the title alone makes it sound like you're defending child pornography. How nice.
Current law already allows law enforcement to require retention of data about specific suspects�including e-mails and other information as well as IP addresses�to ensure that evidence isn�t erased while they build up enough evidence for a court order. But why spearfish when you can lower a dragnet? Blanket data requirements ensure easy access to a year-and-a-half snapshot of the online activities of millions of Americans�every one a potential criminal.
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Filed Under: child porn, data retention, lamarr smith, privacy
Reader Comments
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Let's not rush to judgment Mike
Not true, I heard that John L. DuPuis absolutely LOVES the stuff.
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Re: Let's not rush to judgment Mike
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Re: Re: Let's not rush to judgment Mike
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Re: Let's not rush to judgment Mike
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Have I mentioned corporatism today?
So, are you against the "Patriot Act", Mike? Same trick with words.
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Re: Have I mentioned corporatism today?
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You really need to go look at the new comments on the CBS Cnet lawsuit. Something is really compelling there linking Cnet to mediadefender. And Cnet was on the board of directors of Warner Music Group.
Thanks
Erikkson
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Man, paid to shill. What an lazy asshole you have to be to take that kind of job. Then again it does provide people with mental problems an income so maybe its not all bad
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It was at that time that I saw who some of these people are thanks to skype.
Handicapped work-from-home 'employees'
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Stop
Those
Outrageous
Pornographers
from
Befouling
Our
Outstanding
Babies
Safely
or S.T.O.P.B.O.O.B.S
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And what about 15 yr-old girls? They can get pregnant, they have curves and they know exactly what they are doing. Yet, I'd be a pedo if I fell in love for one of those wanting to go out with me.
Broad definitions are broad. And this law can't be broader, Orwellian style.
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Basically the FBI prosecuted him just for made up images.
Thought police much?
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Oh... Wait i'm in europe... It's not banned here, you just go straight to prison with that stuff...Meh
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Old News is Old
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Re:
Good luck to them trying to sort that out.
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protect them against all enemies
So... since the greatest threat to the security of these records is a subpoena, I guess they should be stored encrypted, with the key destroyed. I doubt that the people who wrote this mess are smart enough to specify cleartext, and if they try to claim that retention of ciphertext doesn't count as real retention, well then that opens up a big door for those who possess forbidden material in encrypted form.
And even if they did manage to get the law "right" in this regard, there's always "retention" on 5-1/4" floppy, or microfiche, or my personal favorite: hardcopy with user names and the corresponding data on different unnumbered pages, kept in separate stacks (mind the order, officer!).
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ICE already tried that.
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Same thing has already happened to the 2nd ammendment
This trick was used on the 2nd amendment a long time ago. It is illegal for the government to keep a list of gun owners. So they don't keep the list, they force the gun shops to keep the list. When a gun shop goes out of business, they have to send all of their records to the ATF.
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While Law Enforcement would be a happy camper in all of this, this also keeps the door open for the PreSettlement lawsuits brought by different extortionists.
And I am sure there is no way this helps benefit the entire 5/6 accusations and your off the net policies. See your honor you know they are guilty, we sent them 5 notices in 18 months.
I'm still a big believer in the idea that lawmakers can bring up these crazed ideas, but until they alone have to abide by what they propose for a year it can't be passed. So Senator, we see you enjoy visiting BigJugs and MarriedButBored.com.... would you like to explain?
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It's all in the phrasing.
"Congressional Rep.s Lamar Smith, Bill Flores, Randy Forbes, Dutch Ruppersberger and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are using Child Pornography to put your personal and financial data into the hands of groups like Anonymous and LulzSec."
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Hope you wont sue me over the remix
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Hot button issues are commonly used like this as we know
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The Star Chamber
Or something.
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What else is new?
Looks like that was more prophetic than political!
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Re: What else is new?
In "It Can't Happen Here" Sinclair Lewis stated "that if fascism came to America it would come wrapped in the flag and whistling 'The Star Spangled Banner'"
If he had mentioned a cross, which is a pity, but even if he had it wouldn't have been that prophetic any more than saying water runs downhill or that summer follows spring is prophetic, pseudo-patriotism is always going to be the foundation of the really dangerous add in the pseudo-religious and you're looking at a nightmare scenario.
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Re: Re: What else is new?
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis#Misattributed
Many variants of this exist, but the earliest incident of such a comment appears to be that of Halford E. Luccock, in Keeping Life Out of Confusion (1938): When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled "made in Germany"; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, "Americanism."
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Larry Flynt was once asked if he believed the first amendment protects child pornography. He replied, "I believe it does, Joe". I am inclined to agree with him on that.
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It's in the Senate as well
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