U.S. Wants Companies to Keep Web Usage Records

By SAUL HANSELL and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: June 2, 2006

The Justice Department is asking Internet companies to keep records on the Web-surfing activities of their customers to aid law enforcement, and may propose legislation to force them to do so.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales held a meeting in Washington last Friday where they offered a general proposal on record-keeping to a group of senior executives from Internet companies, said Brian Roehrkasse, a spokesman for the department. The meeting included representatives from America Online, Microsoft, Google, Verizon and Comcast.

The attorney general has appointed a task force of department officials to explore the issue, and that group is holding another meeting with a broader group of Internet executives today, Mr. Roehrkasse said. The department also met yesterday with a group of privacy experts.

The Justice Department is not asking the Internet companies to give it data about users, but rather to retain information that could be subpoenaed through existing laws and procedures, Mr. Roehrkasse said.

While initial proposals were vague, executives from companies that attended the meeting said they gathered that the department was interested in records that would allow them to identify which individuals visited certain Web sites and possibly conducted searches using certain terms.

It also wants the Internet companies to retain records about whom their users exchange e-mail with, but not the contents of e-mail messages, the executives said. The executives spoke on the condition that they not be identified because they did not want to offend the Justice Department.

Under the guise of blocking pedophiles, an official claims it’s really for terrorism. And other crimes. Invading privacy for other crimes is not about national security. It’s about forcing businesses to take on unwanted costs for unecessary collection of mostly perfectly legal things, on the off chance that maybe someday the government will get lucky and find out something illegal.

Even if you don’t value your privacy more than that, this is an unwarranted form of business regulation whose costs will be borne by consumers because of a very big maybe.

It should signal something that the business owners are also afraid of offending the Justice Department. What is it they fear? Their government, because of all the things Attorney General Gonzalez represents: everything our justice system is supposed to avoid.

And any right to privacy will only exist for those without telephones and computers, who avoid health professionals, banks and libraries.