In effect, H.R., 1981 will force all ISPs will be forced to capture everything you do online and store that for up to 12 months. Why? Just in the CASE that you are participating in child pornography.
Noble idea? From the stand point of the children being exploited, yes. For their parents, yes. Getting the bad guys? You bet.
But for the rest of us, this is like an on-going search warrant on what we do – criminals judged guilty ahead of a crime…the "just in case you are" scenario. Once again, the raison d’etre from a Constitutional standing is the Commerce clause – between that and the Welfare clause, what CAN’T be done to us or for us?
The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recognized. Requiring Internet companies to redesign and reconfigure their systems to facilitate government surveillance of Americans’ expressive activities is simply un-American. Such a scheme would be as objectionable to our Founders as the requiring of licenses for printing presses or the banning of anonymous pamphlets. Today’s vote is therefore very disappointing, but we are especially thankful to GOP Representatives Sensenbrenner, Issa and Chaffetz, who chose principle over party-line in opposing this dangerous tech mandate. We hope that bipartisan opposition will grow as the bill makes its way to the House floor and more lawmakers are educated about this anti-privacy, anti-free speech, anti-innovation proposal.
The rules should not change; if the authorities have just cause, get a warrant. Otherwise, they are mandating yet more regulation on the general population plus the thousands of ISPs that provide the on-ramps to the Internet – a tremendous cost for fairly little benefit.
(H/T: BoingBoing)
