Online Privacy Again at Issue
The government asks Internet firms to keep records longer to track terrorists and child pornographers. But some fear misuse.
By Joseph Menn, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO — Big Internet and telephone companies are girding to fight an unprecedented call by the Bush administration for them to keep detailed records of customers' online activities for two years.
The request by Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III would dramatically expand the government's ability to track what people do online and with whom they communicate.
It follows disclosure this year that the Justice Department had solicited potentially billions of online search queries from some of the same companies and that the National Security Agency had requested calling records of virtually all U.S. customers.
Gonzales and Mueller asked Google Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and other companies to preserve the data at a May 26 meeting, citing their value to investigations into child-pornography distribution and terrorism....None of the Internet companies has publicly opposed the request. But they noted concerns over privacy in statements Thursday. People familiar with the company executives' reaction to the Justice Department's request described alarm — tempered mainly by assurances from Gonzales and Mueller that the discussions were preliminary.
Many of the companies appeared to be emboldened by recent precedents set by Google and Qwest Communications International Inc., both of which resisted broad requests for data from the Justice Department and the NSA, respectively....
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-internet2jun02,0,622125.story?coll=la-home-headlines