US Govt: "We want to know ID of online photo sharers"

by Actual News Geezer | March 6, 2007 at 11:57 am | 466 views | 4 comments

This just came to my attention from NowPublic staffer Victoria Revay.

It outlines steps that are being taken by the US Justice Department to force photo, video, and news-sharing sites like Flickr, YouTube, and NowPublic to keep records on its members' activities.

Under the notion of "data retention," law enforcement officials would seek confidential access to member information to find persons who might have posted illegal material, such as child pornography, or other stuff that could be linked to terrorism activities.

The Bush administration has accelerated its Internet surveillance push by proposing that Web sites must keep records of who uploads photographs or videos in case police determine the content is illegal and choose to investigate, CNET News.com has learned.

That proposal surfaced Wednesday in a private meeting during which U.S. Department of Justice officials, including Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, tried to convince industry representatives such as AOL and Comcast that data retention would be valuable in investigating terrorism, child pornography and other crimes. The discussions were described to News.com by several people who attended the meeting.

Republicans have previously tabled legislation that would make it mandatory for web operations to keep data for a minimum of two years, according to this story in News.Com from Feb. 6:

All Internet service providers would need to track their customers'
online activities to aid police in future investigations under
legislation introduced Tuesday as part of a Republican "law and order
agenda."

Employees of any Internet provider who fail to store that information
face fines and prison terms of up to one year, the bill says. The U.S.
Justice Department could order the companies to store those records
forever.

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jordan

at 12:48 on March 6th, 2007

Child pornographers are the Internet's "terrorists" in terms of government justification of overreaching surveillance. Officials seem to think if they had juuuuuust a little more info on what we're doing, where we're doing it, and whom we're doing it with, then their jobs (whatever those may actually be) will be easier and the world will be a safer place, as long as there are no follow-up questions. Trouble is, "juuuuuust a little more" is never quite enough.

jordan

at 12:49 on March 6th, 2007

good stuff:

At NowPublic, this is high praise from NowPublic editors! Freedom is most conspicuous in its absence.

Your story is now on the home page for awhile, and everywhere else the “good stuff” box shows up. Many thanks for your great work.

KEARNEY

at 13:26 on March 6th, 2007

Beware using the justification of pornography to track down critics of the government. Why should news media outlets be responsible for data mining efforts on behalf o the government? We are really headed down the slippery slope of surveillance.