Tuesday, March 24, 2009

US Government May Begin Internet Use Tracking

A new piece of legislation is being considered in order to fight online predators, though the methods to quash it may be reminiscent of 1984's Big Brother.

To make a long story short, in 1984, the government (read: Big Brother), knowing what was best for the people, spent much time "spying" over them to keep them in order.
If this bill passes, internet users could expect almost the same.

The bill calls for internet records to be retained for two years of every IP address, whether business, residential, or WI-FI hotspot. The only reason why we have not seen internet user data retention like this, according to a Wired magazine article, is because many internet companies would have to invest a LOT of money and data storage to do so.
Possibly the only entity that could do an undertaking like this, is a major country's government.

The reasoning for this bill is to protect minors from online predators, but will involve tracking the internet usage data --what sites someone has visited, how long, what things they searched for, etc-- for every internet user at a given time.

The article compares the data-mining to something similar as monitoring phone records. Many government or agents of local authorities, like the police, can obtain a record of the people any given phone number may have called, how long the call lasted, how many times they were called, when, etc... but you never really know what was said during the conversation.
This legislation would be like recording the conversation, but instead it would "record" one's online activities.

If you have thoughts on the matter, you are welcome to leave comments.

(Pictured, above: Big sister sees your pr0nz; right: Pedobear)

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7 Comments:

At March 24, 2009 at 6:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://tech2.in.com/media/images/img_3469_ghostbusters.jpg

 
At March 25, 2009 at 9:16 PM, Blogger xbombr said...

I'm not thinking our government needs to be involved in this. Seriously, we've got much bigger problems than pedo bears, pronz, and illegal software/music. This is pretty stupid imo. There's little good that can come of this and it's a blatant intrusion on privacy. Unlike phone calls, where who you're calling doesn't give away the conversation itself, the web address gives away a ton about what's going on where you're surfing. If you're on some kind of pronz site its going to be obvious, as well as if you're looking up cooking recipes. Seriously, we need to get our priorities straight as a country and stop wasting time on intruding the privacy of our citizens.

 
At March 26, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Blogger Kami... said...

What's Pedo bear?

Possibly related?

I think some things should have a certain amount of monitoring...
Laws dealing with the internet differ from place to place... some places consider things very seriously, while others don't...

Of course if we had more responsible people that look out for each other like this.... then we'd be fine :)

 
At March 26, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pedobear is the fellow pictured on the right side of the article, per the photo accreditation at the bottom of the page.

 
At March 26, 2009 at 3:05 PM, Blogger Kami... said...

Oh! I thought "right" as in "isn't that right?" :P
I've seen the "pedo bear" mentioned several times in chat... but had no clue as to why... I STILL don't know =/

 
At March 26, 2009 at 11:07 PM, Blogger Meyume said...

They shall never catch me! *run*

 
At March 29, 2009 at 12:54 PM, Anonymous PiscesDragon said...

Invasion of privacy much? I mean our government could be doing other things then this..I mean if they do this I would feel like I was living the story of 1984.

 

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