Last Updated on September 22, 2023 by Christopher G Mendla
Compared to the so-called “Stimulus Bill” this is a minor piece of idiocy, but idiocy nonetheless.
According to this Cnet Article, congress is considering a bill to mandate that everyone with a wifi point keep records of all access for 2 years. They are trying to pass this off as “Fo the Children”
First of all, it is hard to determine exactly how this will protect children.
The nasty part of this is the requirement to have 2 years of logs. I currently have Verizon Fios in my home. The Actiontech routers they use are referred to me as Actionless. I’ve had 2 of them replaced and am fighting verizon now as the third is in it’s death throes. The problem is that when you replace the router or do a factory reset, the logs evaporate. So, follow the tech’s advice and do a factory reset and you are breaking the law.
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.
So, you will have to keep access records for two years for your home and business.
Also, what’s to stop the records from being used as a fishing expedition.. Hey, Chris looked up “How to beat the IRS” or “How to hide your Guns” or regularly visits an anti obama site. Guess what, now chris is on THE LIST.
Consider that, if law enforcement is really trying to track someone, they have a number of other tools to do so.. ie warrants at the ISP level or a warrant for a wiretap.
The next paragraph set me off a little
Until Gonzales’ remarks in 2006, the Bush administration had generally opposed laws requiring data retention, saying it had “serious reservations” about them. But after the European Parliament approved such a requirement for Internet, telephone and VoIP providers, top administration officials began talking about the practice more favorably.
IOW, Europe is doing it, so let’s do it too. Gee, Europe is a socialist, big brother, privacy invading mess. Look at England where the “Councils” stick there nose into just about every bloody aspect of your life including how many sheets of toilet paper you use. Yeah, let’s be just like the Euroweenies, Forget that constitution thing.
Both the Democrats and Republicans are pushing this idiocy.
BTW Senator Cornyn who is authoring this bill is also on the Border Security Committee. Hey Senator.. great job you are doing there.. 12 million plus illegal aliens.. Kudos…
Here is where you can contact the senator to voice your opinion about this bill
http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
Wow. This seems like a really bad idea from Senator Cornyn. I think it is too broad and I agree with the Center for Democracy & Technology that this is invasive and unnecessary.
Hopefully Congress will actually choose to open up a discussion about this. Now that they have passed the stimulus package, they should be able to move on to issues like this.
I saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is still asking people to give their opinion on the most important thing for Congress to do next. Then they are going to focus their efforts on getting Congress to accomplish what we actually want them to do.
What do the other readers think Congress should do? Should they work against this Internet Safety Act? Should they work to prevent further exploitation of "for-the-children"-type bills? Or should they focus their efforts on completely different areas? Make sure to add your opinion so Congress can know what we want them to do next – http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/email/email4.cfm?id=200