TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Your ISP as Net Watchdog

Re: Your ISP as Net Watchdog

Danny Burstein (dannyb@panix.com)
Fri, 17 Jun 2005 19:37:32 UTC

( snip of the latest gov't trial balloon about mandatory ISP logging )

With the very strong emphasis that I'm not speaking for any ISP with
which I'm connected:

The problem here is the clear and evident slippery slope.

To carry this to an extreme example:

Office bathrooms with video cameras.

If a bomb went off in the building, most
(although not all) people would accept
having Eliot Ness looking through the
tapes to see if there's any footage of
the person putting it together.

The Big Problem is that everyone is well
aware that once those cameras are around,
it won't just be Mr. Ness having access
to them after a bombing.

Same thing with ISP records.

Most (not all, of course) would agree to hand over material for use in
tracking (or stopping) Timothy McVeigh.

But everyone is well aware that once these records are available,
they'll be used for lots and lots of other things.

And not just gov't witch hunts. Throw in more or less routine crimes
(certainly of concern to the victims) and then move sideways to civil
litigation, divorces, etc.

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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