The Assault on Online Privacy
We read:
"A dangerous bill has been approved by the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee that would ELMINIATE your online privacy. That's why I sent a letter to Congress using DownsizeDC.org's Hands Off the Internet Campaign. I urge you to send a letter. You may borrow from or copy this...I insist that you oppose HR 1981, the so-called "Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act."
The very name of the bill is dishonest and offensive. It misleads the public into thinking the bill gives law enforcement expanded tools to protect children from pedophiles.
But actually, it gives law enforcement broad powers to examine ANYONE's Internet activities, for ANY reason. According to CNET (http://cnet.co/oU5t35):
* It would require commercial Internet providers "to store... customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and temporarily-assigned IP addresses."
* Rep. Zoe Lofgren says this would create "a data bank of every digital act by every American" that would "let us find out where every single American visited Web sites."
* If the law passed, criminals would simply go to libraries or coffeehouses and use the Web anonymously, while law-abiding Americans would have their activities recorded.
In addition...
* ISP's will have to reconfigure their systems to accommodate the data retention requirements -- an expense they will surely pass on to their customers (to you)
* Combing through mostly irrelevant records of innocent Americans is a highly INEFFICIENT form of catching criminals
As Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation puts it, HR 1981, "would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American... Such a scheme would be as objectionable to our Founders as the requiring of licenses for printing presses or the banning of anonymous pamphlets." (http://bit.ly/rffep9)
The First and Fourth Amendments guarantee my right to anonymity and to privacy. Both disappear if the government tracks my online activities.
Uphold your oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. Oppose HR 1981!
Source
3 comments:
I've already sent my emails a week ago when I first heard about this. I think a more effective law would be to make all Congressmen's emails, both government related and personal, open to the public. That way WE can keep an eye on what THEY are doing as our represenatives.
-L
Disclaimer: Haven't read the CNET article or the bill. But based on downsizedc's posted letter...
How does "... require commercial Internet providers to store..." equate to "gives law enforcement broad powers to examine ANYONE's Internet activities, for ANY reason?" Pretty big leap there. Or just really poor reading comprehension.
If the bill said, "LE can look at anybody for any reason" that would be a problem. But since that wasn't quoted, it probably doesn't say that.
In reality, sounds like this bill is simply designed to ensure that when legal process is issued to an ISP as part of a criminal investigation (note that word "legal" back there) an unscrupulous ISP can't just say, "Sorry... we don't keep that kind of data."
Please check all "slippery slope" and "But this information *might* be abused" arguments at the door.
Disclaimer #2: Yes, yes, if we ever end up in a Orwellian society like so many privacy advocates are concerned about, the government will just do it anyway, not tell you about, and "disappear" you if you complain about it. They won't care about "laws" on the books. So don't sweat stuff like this.
Fact is, we long ago passed the point where our privacy was in danger of being invaded. Today, the word/idea of privacy is a simply myth. There is no such thing!
Every bank and credit-card company knows far more about you than the govt. does, or cares to know. And, if you shop online, the number of entities that have your info goes up by a factor of x20. Do you think it's the govt. sending you all that spam and junk mail? Is it the govt. that send you ad's for jeans, after you've been online look for jeans?
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