ACLU Condemns Bill Eliminating Online Privacy

[Doondoo]

The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned a bill introduced by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), that seeks to eliminate online privacy by requiring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to maintain detailed records on each of their subscribers’ online activities. The bill would give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broad discretion to determine what records ISPs must keep and for how long. In addition, it would require "sexually explicit" websites to post warning labels or face criminal sanctions.

The following can be attributed to Marvin Johnson, Legislative Counsel for the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

"Legislation like this is like swatting a fly with a bazooka. Such sweeping measures do little to stop online crime; instead, they overwhelm law enforcement agents with mountains of raw data and have a chilling effect on ISP subscribers’ First Amendment rights. There is no limit to the amount of information Attorney General Gonzales can require ISPs to keep, from instant messages to private emails to web searches, and he can require that they be kept forever. This represents an incredible invasion into our privacy and freedom to use the Internet without the government reading over our shoulders."


http://www.aclu.org/privacy/internet/28355prs20070213.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Is there any chance the bill will pass more or less intact? n/t

[FormerDittoHead]

2. What we need is a constitutional amendment extending the 4th and 5th amendments...

As corporations and government have "partnered" (and I'm not going to single out Republicans)... if you think, for a SECOND... that without CLEAR AND POSITIVE action our online privacy won't be eventually, slowly, bit by bit, eliminated, and that it can't happen... YOU'RE DREAMING.

If you don't think that the corporations want it EVEN MORE... to scan everything we write for everything from marketing data mining to making sure we're not copying their crap or even saying bad things about them...

Kiddie porn and terrorism. I'm sorry, but once we get all of the "gates" in place, do you REALLY THINK it's going to stop THERE? Do you REALLY THINK they won't start scanning for "illegal" copies of movies, tv shows, music, magazine articles, pictures, passages of books, newspaper articles, and eventually, ILLEGAL *IDEAS*???

The corporations are WAITING to make sure that if you were to write a song, or a book, or an IDEA, you'll have to PAY *THEM* for licensing the "legally required digital rights management"...

The corporations are FOAMING AT THE MOUTH to turn the Internet into a mammoth multimedia JUKEBOX complete with coin slot AND NOTHING MORE....

[thunder35]

3. what a facist country this is turning into one.