- Wired, Wednesday, September 20, 2006 11:15 AM
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that Internet-service providers should preserve customers' Web surfing habits just in case the government needs them to fight child pornography.
Interestingly, most big ISPs keep those records anyway, primarily because it's less expensive to store data than to discard it. Testifying before a Senate panel, Gonzales said the growing threat of
child pornography was too great to be ignored, while acknowledging that users would be forced to concede more of their privacy rights. What privacy rights? It's hard to see where privacy comes into
play anymore on the Internet, since Web companies have the ability to retain all our surfing information. But child porn could be considered key evidence for prosecutors looking to put sex offenders
behind bars. "We need information. Information helps us makes cases," Gonzales told the Senate panel. "We have to find a way for Internet-service providers to retain information for a period of time
so we can go back with a legal process to get them." He said the government's lack of access to customer data is the biggest deterrent to the war on child porn. AOL, Comcast, Verizon, Google, and
Microsoft are among the ISPs that met with Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller. They've told the Web providers they must retain customer records for up to two years. Forty-nine state attorneys
general signed a letter in June supporting a federal law that would require longer retention of customer records.
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