18 October 2006
Tracking users' Internet activities too much risk and too few benefits
The director of the FBI, Robert Mueller has asked for ISPs to track their customers' activities. He argues that terrorists are able to coordinate plans on the Internet as well as violent sexual predators sitting in chat rooms and that ISPs usually delete the information that would help law enforcement identify and catch these criminals before law enforcement can review it. Thankfully he also states that there must be a balance between privacy and law enforcement gaining access.
While I have to agree that it is true that malicious activities can go on anonymously over the Internet, more monitoring and data retention is not the answer for this problem. Maybe it will help for sexual predators sitting in chat rooms, in which case retaining a chat log for for example three months would be helpful in that sense, but that's not the responsibility of ISPs, it's the responsibility of chat providers. As for terrorist activities, this will do nothing to stop such groups communicating with members. An encrypted file using an unpatented encryption algorithm sent to someone can take months if not years to unencrypt depending on the security level of the encryption. In such a situation a terrorist group could send instructions to its members which would be useless to any law enforcement organization which intercepted the file. Banning the use of highly secure encryption is no solution as any sensitive data sent over the Internet should be protected from evesdropping and encryption is the only option.
To date the best option for sexual predators and other criminal activities taking place on the Internet is having organizations which employ people to talk in chat rooms and search for such predators, working with law enforcement once they are in contact with such a person. Groups searching message boards and other forums as well can find and stop such activities. Such groups have been successful and are still successful in stopping such people sometimes before they have ever committed a crime against an innocent person. Education among teens and young adults as well will help prevent them from becoming a victim.
There is nothing that forcing an ISP to retain information can do to help prevent criminal activities. There are too many other options for people to pass information. Also such data retention leaves an abundance of information for malicious groups to steal and use to make a profit. Of course there is also the recent and well-known case of AOL's data being accidently released to the public. It's too risky for privacy and the protection of the public to implement such a requirement.
While I have to agree that it is true that malicious activities can go on anonymously over the Internet, more monitoring and data retention is not the answer for this problem. Maybe it will help for sexual predators sitting in chat rooms, in which case retaining a chat log for for example three months would be helpful in that sense, but that's not the responsibility of ISPs, it's the responsibility of chat providers. As for terrorist activities, this will do nothing to stop such groups communicating with members. An encrypted file using an unpatented encryption algorithm sent to someone can take months if not years to unencrypt depending on the security level of the encryption. In such a situation a terrorist group could send instructions to its members which would be useless to any law enforcement organization which intercepted the file. Banning the use of highly secure encryption is no solution as any sensitive data sent over the Internet should be protected from evesdropping and encryption is the only option.
To date the best option for sexual predators and other criminal activities taking place on the Internet is having organizations which employ people to talk in chat rooms and search for such predators, working with law enforcement once they are in contact with such a person. Groups searching message boards and other forums as well can find and stop such activities. Such groups have been successful and are still successful in stopping such people sometimes before they have ever committed a crime against an innocent person. Education among teens and young adults as well will help prevent them from becoming a victim.
There is nothing that forcing an ISP to retain information can do to help prevent criminal activities. There are too many other options for people to pass information. Also such data retention leaves an abundance of information for malicious groups to steal and use to make a profit. Of course there is also the recent and well-known case of AOL's data being accidently released to the public. It's too risky for privacy and the protection of the public to implement such a requirement.
