• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 20, 2006

With just several weeks left until Congress adjourns for the year, the nonprofit group Center for Democracy & Technology has weighed in on pending bills that, it argues, should die on the vine.

The CDT argues that proposed laws all threaten Web users and publishers, either by jeopardizing privacy or imposing burdensome restrictions on Web site owners. One of the bills, a mandatory data retention law, would require Internet service providers to retain information about users for at least one year.

The bill endangers users' online privacy for at least two reasons, argues the CDT. One is that the government might seek information about users' search history or other Web activity for all sorts of investigatory purposes--some of which might not be legitimate. Additionally, once ISPs routinely collect and store vast arrays of data, ISPs also can leak the data.

Anyone who doubts this possibility need only remember what happened with AOL earlier this year. This summer, a company employee deliberately put search histories of 650,000 users online. When a large, public company like AOL can intentionally compromise users' privacy, imagine the potential for accidental damage.

The CDT also says that requiring ISPs and other companies to retain vast amounts of data will be costly--and that consumers will ultimately bear the brunt of that cost.

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