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Topic: Banking

House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

Summary: A House committee approved a bill that would force Internet providers to keep logs of their customers' activities for one year - for the police to review.

Declan McCullagh

By Declan McCullagh |

Internet providers would be forced to keep logs of their customers' activities for one year--in case police want to review them in the future--under legislation that a U.S. House of Representatives committee approved today.

A last-minute rewrite of the bill expands the information that commercial Internet providers are required to store to include customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses, some committee members suggested. By a 7-16 vote, the panel rejected an amendment that would have clarified that only IP addresses must be stored.

It represents "a data bank of every digital act by every American" that would "let us find out where every single American visited Web sites," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, who led Democratic opposition to the bill.

For more on this story, read House panel approves broadened ISP snooping bill on CNET News.

Topics: Banking, Browser, Telcos

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55 comments
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  • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

    Time to read up on Tor and other "onion routers".
    wkulecz
    Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      @wkulecz
      Yep. Time to find out if a TOR appliance exists.
      hawks5999
      Reply Vote

      • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

        @hawks5999 Tor is not up to the task. Not only is it painfully slow, but its security is not even that great. That is why the Tor documentation itself insists you should not use this to hide things from the government, you should assume the Federal government knows how to break the security on Tor. Other governments probably can't, though.
        mejohnsn
        Reply Vote

  • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

    You would think that the House has bigger problems right know than making outrageous laws, say fixing this whole debt problem??
    mcfant
    Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      @mcfant
      Each to his own: Personally I like anything that removes the crminal and wanna-be criminals from the 'net. You have to look at the big picture here.
      tom@...
      Reply Vote

      • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

        @tom@...
        the big picture is: Gov. can trace every digital move you make. Criminals are able and knowledgeable about circumventing the measure. So who will you catch? Do you really think that any scammer, or pedophile will surf the net openly?
        Juergen Hartl
        Reply Vote

  • Message has been deleted.

    kangkangee
    Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      like anything that removes the crminal and wanna-be criminals from the 'net. You have to look at the big picture here. <a href="http://www.speedydegrees.com/">Life Experience Degrees</a> | <a href="http://www.speedydegrees.com/program/Associate-Degrees.htm">Associate Degree</a>
      jordanhawk
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    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

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      jordanhawk
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  • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

    "Loverock, we see you been going to a lot of porn sites over the last year..."

    :)
    LoverockDavidson
    Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      @LoverockDavidson

      "Loverock, we see you been going to a lot of porn sites over the last year..."

      Irrelevant.
      tom@...
      Reply Vote

  • Any Question?

    Anyone out there still think that our government isn't the greatest threat we face?
    Tim Patterson
    Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      @Tim Patterson Me! Elect certain types of people, get certain types of results. Note that there was opposition to this bill. Vote for the candidates/party that led the opposition next time.
      jgm@...
      Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      @Tim Patterson Yes, a lot of us do. For unlike you, we know that other governments are often much, MUCH worse.

      Bad as this bill is, it is nowhere near as much a threat to our liberties as what Internet users in Russia and China have been putting up with for YEARS.
      mejohnsn
      Reply Vote

      • So

        That's the best you can do guys?

        'It's OK because other countries are worse'? Really?

        What a couple of serfs.
        Tim Patterson
        Reply Vote

    • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

      @Tim Patterson Yes.
      I assume you are one of the ones with something to hide?
      tom@...
      Reply Vote

      • No

        @tom@...

        Your response is one that I would expect from someone who had already sold their soul to the system (usually for a $buck) and has no hope of redemption.

        You seem to be willingly clueless as to the obvious dangers of such legislation. Of course the murderous tyrants throughout history also had their enablers. They were usually the first ones disposed of after said tyrants achieved power.
        Tim Patterson
        Reply Vote

      • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

        @tom@... Sounds that way to me too. You know Tim Patterson, you CAN always move to another country, if you think it's so terrible here.....
        T-Wrench
        Reply Vote

      • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

        @Tim@... Why is it every time a Democrat gets in the White House, a certain type of people become convinced, a la McCarthy, that there's a literal plot to take over the country and impose a dictatorship? And once a Republican gets back into office, suddenly the conspiracy goes away?

        It sounds like you are indeed being controlled... through fear instilled in you by people trying to get you to vote them back into power.
        jgm@...
        Reply Vote

  • RE: House panel approves bill to make ISPs keep Web logs

    I'm with the opposition on this one.
    William_P
    Reply Vote
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