ISP's now required to keep all your browsing history for 1 year (US)

[SXRguyinMA]

http://lifehacker.com/5825746/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-internet-snooping-bill-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

thoughts?

[Airbozo]

Scary.

Too many ways this could go wrong.

[Kayin]

Find out who voted for it and don't vote for them again. Though I swear our votes do nothing these days.

[diluzio91]

How long before the riaa and their ilk begin to subpoena this info...

[crenn]

3.5ms after it's enforced.

The saddest thing I think is it seems it was passed with no hassles with no one asking if it even increase the effectiveness of the police's investigation. Sadder thing, same thing is being tried to be introduced in Australia, just it's not being successful.

Just be glad they're not trying to introduce a firewall to block refused classification sites, even though it's been proven by labs to be ineffective.... the Australian government is still trying to get that through without success. Only takes 1 corrupt politician with a pay check from a sponsor to use it for a purpose that throws privacy out of the window.

Still like the idea of forcing politicians to wear vests with the name of sponsors and how much they're getting from them. As the comedian who said it says, "Then you'd really know why that politician voted the way they did".

[mDust]

While I have nothing to hide, I don't like my name, address, phone number, e-mail, SS#, and CC#s being saved more than necessary on 'secure' servers that I have no control over. I don't even want e-tailers saving that data anywhere...especially with how frequently personal data is hacked and stolen these days.

[CorsePerVita]

While I have nothing to hide, I don't like my name, address, phone number, e-mail, SS#, and CC#s being saved more than necessary on 'secure' servers that I have no control over. I don't even want e-tailers saving that data anywhere...especially with how frequently personal data is hacked and stolen these days.

That is also a concern. I don't pirate stuff. I can't afford to in my line of work. So I don't have anything to hide. However, my greatest fear is someone stealing personal info. Anytime something is stored somewhere, even if it's "safe" it's at risk if it isn't in your own possession, people are careless with your own things (even when it's your info).

And technically, I don't think anyone can subpoena something regarding your information unless it's regarding investigation into you in the first place. In other words, there has to be a reason for a subpoena, someone can't just go "hm i wonder what bob has been up to? hey can i have that info cuz .. uh.. well.. i just want it." but if they had a complaint against an ip for downloading something, well, then if they needed to subpoena then they could. If stuff is getting to that point already then more than likely it's no bueno for that person.

It says the bill can be amended. It's likely that if enough squabble is made of it that it may end up happening if that's the case, because in all reality, it does pose security risks (like you said, such as personal info). The other issue is that even if a person was entirely innocent of something but their info was subpoena'd, lots of things can be made in use to make a person look bad which are no business of everyone else but you can bet people can/will use in court against that person.

Keep in mind though even when a bill is passed, that it will take time for it to go into effect and be enforced.

It would be like recording every show, what time you watched it, exactly what channel, what you ate while you watched it and then putting it in a database.

Realistically some ISPs hold some of that stuff already for a short time, but not a long time. A year is fairly substantial.

[x88x]

Ugh. Yet another example of politicians pushing their sponsors' interests under the paper-thin guise of fighting child porn. :rolleyes:

Simple solution though. Set up several scripts to automatically load webpages at random intervals. Throw up enough of a smoke screen and even if someone does subpoena your records there's no way they can prove you did it not one of your bots. :twisted:

EDIT: Oh, or just set up a TOR exit node. :twisted: Same results.

[CorsePerVita]

I think we need to all move to an island and just make our own country there.

[x88x]

Actually, I took a closer look at it...read through the text of the bill...and I'm not seeing anything about retaining browsing history, just about retaining the dynamic IP assignment records.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.01981:
In particular:

SEC. 4. RETENTION OF CERTAIN RECORDS BY ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION SERVICE PROVIDERS.

(a) In General- Section 2703 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(h) Retention of Certain Records- A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least 18 months the temporarily assigned network addresses the service assigns to each account, unless that address is transmitted by radio communication (as defined in section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934).'.

(b) Sense of Congress- It is the sense of Congress that records retained pursuant to section 2703(h) of title 18, United States Code, should be stored securely to protect customer privacy and prevent against breaches of the records.

Maybe someone a bit more familiar with legal stuff can look over it and see if I'm missing something, but from what I can see there's nothing there about browsing history. In fact, in the LifeHacker article they say as much...right before they start going off about how pointless recording everyone's browsing history would be.

The lovingly titled Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (PCFIPA of 2011) requires ISPs to retain customer names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and dynamic IP addresses. It's a record of your personal information plus the web sites you visit. It's like handing over a year's worth of browser history plus the contents of your wallet to the police.

I'm not seeing how they make the jump from:

requires ISPs to retain customer names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and dynamic IP addresses
to:

It's a record of your personal information plus the web sites you visit.

Unless I'm missing something major in the text of the bill, I'm disappointed with LifeHacker. They're usually better about doing their research on stuff like this.

EDIT:
For full text of the relevant US Code (wording prior to this bill):
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002703----000-.html
From reading that, the name, address, phone number, and payment information (ie, credit card number, bank info, etc) is already something that the ISP is required to turn over under court order.

So, to confirm what I was reading in the text of the bill, the only new thing that this bill introduces in the area of ISPs keeping records on customers is that they have to keep records of their dynamic IP assignments.

I'm disappointed in you, LifeHacker. :( I thought you were better than that. :(

[CorsePerVita]

Hm, interesting. Good read into x88x. If that's the case then that isn't actually all that bad. MOST ISPs keep logs of dynamic ips for a short time as it is, it's just that the logs aren't for a really long time, so really, it's just prolonging that. Realistically, they already have your name/address/phone # and credit card # if you do business anyway... so that's not really new info. Sounds like perhaps then it's just extending dynamic ip info if I'm reading that right. If that's the case then indeed, that's quite a leap.

[mDust]

Hm, interesting. Good read into x88x. If that's the case then that isn't actually all that bad. MOST ISPs keep logs of dynamic ips for a short time as it is, it's just that the logs aren't for a really long time, so really, it's just prolonging that. Realistically, they already have your name/address/phone # and credit card # if you do business anyway... so that's not really new info. Sounds like perhaps then it's just extending dynamic ip info if I'm reading that right. If that's the case then indeed, that's quite a leap.

The required time to hold all the info has been extended from 30-60 days to 365 days.

If you google yourself you will likely see your full name, address and probably a phone number. You'll notice that your SS#, CC# and bank accounts are not saved with that data. There's really no issue until all that data gets lumped together and announced to the public that it's guaranteed to exist in one spot...at which point it becomes a targeted treasure trove for ID thieves.

With my luck, my data will be saved in a plain text file named 'secret personal data' on an open ftp server and there's nothing I can do about it.

[Drum Thumper]

Here's my thoughts: Lifehacker's article on this bill is nothing more than a poor attempt to increase traffic to their site.

[crenn]

Here's my thoughts: Lifehacker's article on this bill is nothing more than a poor attempt to increase traffic to their site.
Probably worked

[x88x]

The required time to hold all the info has been extended from 30-60 days to 365 days.

18 months, actually. Another detail LH failed on. ;)

(h) Retention of Certain Records- A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least 18 months [...]

[mDust]

18 months, actually. Another detail LH failed on. ;)

Son of a...did they even read the bill before writing that article?!?

Damn the internet and its unreliability!

[msmrx57]

Son of a...did they even read the bill before writing that article?!?

Damn the internet and its unreliability!

But it's on the interwebz, it MUST be true...... :facepalm:


I work with waaayyyyy to many of these idiots. :no:

[Twigsoffury]

sounds like a good increase on our currently monthly bills to get the s@#t required and storage space to save 1,000,000's of peoples usage history no matter how basic that data is..


millions of 14kb files start to add up lol

[Ichbin]

although it only passed one committee of the HOR not the entire house, Twigs brings a good point.


sounds like a good increase on our currently monthly bills to get the s@#t required and storage space to save 1,000,000's of peoples usage history no matter how basic that data is..


millions of 14kb files start to add up lol

"What's this $50 storage fee?"

"Well...:whistler:"

[DaJe]

People who don't know much about how all of these things work, and what Internet really is, shouldn't be the ones making all the rules about it :/

[Twigsoffury]

People who don't know much about how all of these things work, and what Internet really is, shouldn't be the ones making all the rules about it :/

Isn't it obvious how the internet works?

Magic smoke!

And if you let the magic smoke out of the electronics, it won't work again until you find another component with magic smoke still inside it.

[x88x]

Isn't it obvious how the internet works?

Magic smoke!

And if you let the magic smoke out of the electronics, it won't work again until you find another component with magic smoke still inside it.

No, no, no. That's how computers and electronics work...the internet is a series of TUBES! :whistler:

[Twigsoffury]

No, no, no. That's how computers and electronics work...the internet is a series of TUBES! :whistler:

I always thought the internet ran through the city's water system.

[msmrx57]

I always thought the internet ran through the city's water system.

Nope, sewer system.

[Twigsoffury]

Nope, sewer system.

explains the latency. damn turds blocking the packet flow.

[Mark_Hardware]

Nope, sewer system.

I believe it with all the sh!t I read...:rolleyes:

[Ichbin]

People who don't know much about how all of these things work, and what Internet really is, shouldn't be the ones making all the rules about it :/

Interesting, cause I could say the same thing about every single body of government!

[AmEv]

Bringing new meaning to Google TiSP.....
*headshake*

[Twigsoffury]

Bringing new meaning to Google TiSP.....
*headshake*

Google Should have its own ISP. and just make it discounted by running advertisements or what not.


I'm sure it could be done.

[x88x]

Google Should have its own ISP. and just make it discounted by running advertisements or what not.


I'm sure it could be done.

I'm reminded of 'free' dial-up companies back in the day who forced you to run an ad-encrusted browser whenever you used their service...

[billygoat333]

I'm reminded of 'free' dial-up companies back in the day who forced you to run an ad-encrusted browser whenever you used their service...


*shudder* Netzero... lol

[AmEv]

FREE* Internet access from Us Guyz!

*free as in ad crusted and you pay for your already overpriced phonebill.

[Twigsoffury]

I'm reminded of 'free' dial-up companies back in the day who forced you to run an ad-encrusted browser whenever you used their service...

eh i've got a good enough computer to handle some spam in the background.