NY Times: Internet firms are asked to keep search records. Justice Dept. tells executives it may need data to counter terrorism and child porn.
This is roughly akin to having them follow you around everywhere you go with a video camera, watching everything you do, including in your home, just to have a record later on. It is like capturing a video of every book you simply pull off the shelf at a library, or in a bookstore.
This will have a real chilling effect on communications, including citizen media; when a whistleblower’s every move is tracked by government and the ISPs, telling dangerous truths will be harder than ever.
But the chill will go much deeper, and the danger is truly alarming.
It is all being couched in the guise of protecting children, of course, the refuge governments use to justify these moves. It is another — huge — step toward a pervasive surveillance society.
on Jun 3rd, 2006 at 5:14 pm
[…] I’ve often said there’s little privacy left these days, specially on the web. Dan comments over at the Center for Citizen Media Blog on a recent NYTimes article: […]
on Jun 5th, 2006 at 4:59 am
Yes. Chilling, scary and potential abuses at every turn. You are right with your assumptions – or at least I agree.
Cheers.
on Jun 5th, 2006 at 8:19 am
[…] Right now, whenever the government is investigating a potential terrorist or criminal, there are virtually no impediments to ensuring that data related to the suspect is preserved. But the government wants everything about everyone warehoused, just in case it later decides it would like to dissect someone’s long-term clicktrail. As Dan Gillmor suggests, the knowledge that movements on the internet are recorded in this way can be expected to have a chilling effect on everyone. […]
on Jun 11th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
unfortunately, lack of privacy is the source of information going to the wrong people at the wrong time and leads to scripted chaos in our interpretation of the constitution. this means that we have to be diligent about discussing the culture, climate, circumstance, and environment surrounding our constitutional rights and make sure that a “little bit of information” isn’t abused by our communities