FBI wants records kept of Websites Visited

FBI wants records kept of Websites Visited

www.blacklistednews.com

The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.

FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users' "origin and destination information," a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.

(visit the link for the full news article)

So first off I checked to see if anyone else had posted this and didn't see anything I went back about 5 pages on the search page and also checked the breaking news 2 pages back and saw nothing so if anyone else posted it earlier sorry.

Also if it's in the wrong area sorry. I don't post thing's to often.

Ok my opinion time. I noticed on one of the really big threads on ATS at the moment that a man was killed and the charges for the FBI barging in were child pornography. If you notice just in the snippet that would be just one use of logging folks this way.

But the question is if that is a use where does it stop? Do they just grab IP addresses or maybe they get full info, say one day the FBI decides they wanna rule the world they find that I was on ATS or some other site and they round me up.

The whole idea reminds me of how they can tell where you are in 1984. Just sayin'.

www.blacklistednews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is dumb. It only catches the idiots.

Anyone that is halfway clever will quickly find ways to mask their surfing, and simply avoid detection.

It can and is being done all the time.

Just look up masking techniques.

Our gov't is so not up with the times...



[edit on 5-2-2010 by muzzleflash]

Originally posted by muzzleflash
This is dumb. It only catches the idiots.

Anyone that is halfway clever will quickly find ways to mask their surfing, and simply avoid detection.

It can and is being done all the time.

Just look up masking techniques.

Our gov't is so not up with the times...

[edit on 5-2-2010 by muzzleflash]

That's great for the 1% that's tech savvy. What about the other 99%?

I #ing hate this country. It is turning into a pathetic FUBAR of fear, repression and jesused out xenophobic idiots running around scared. Now they want to go after the greatest information source in the history of the world. I have learned and do a lot of illicit things on and thanks to the internet. I really would be angry if I lost access to that info or those communities.

reply to post by CuriousSkeptic



[edit on 5-2-2010 by Misoir]

FREEDOM does not exist anymore.

Originally posted by Agent_USA_Supporter
FREEDOM does not exist anymore.

Can someone tell me when it ever did, like, really, actually?

Originally posted by muzzleflash
This is dumb. It only catches the idiots.

Anyone that is halfway clever will quickly find ways to mask their surfing, and simply avoid detection.

It can and is being done all the time.

Just look up masking techniques.

Our gov't is so not up with the times...

[edit on 5-2-2010 by muzzleflash]

I think the goal is to be able to drum up evidence against just about any "average Joe" out there. All it takes is one website pop-up/redirect to a server hosted in a country that is not friendly to the USA and now you can be detained as a person of interest.

Or if that pop-up happens to go to a server hosting some child porn..

Think about it. How many times in the past two years have you accidentally ended up on a site (via unintentional click, pop-up, malware, virus/bot, misleading hyperlink) which could be considered illegal? I know it has happened to me.

By collecting a list of sites visited by people over the span of 2 years you are effectively making everybody a potential criminal. Now if somebody is getting in your way, you can just grab the logs and find a 'bad' site they visited.

Worse yet, you can probably do some pretty interesting profiling based on web surfing patterns and logs. I am not sure if I like that. They put that into place, and I'll bet proxies like Tor will become real popular, real quick. Not because the average person is doing illegal stuff, but because having all of that information easily accessible could open the door for misuse.

Never mind the fact that then an individual may be held accountable for the actions of a bot if they got infected. Yikes!

Originally posted by nydsdan

By collecting a list of sites visited by people over the span of 2 years you are effectively making everybody a potential criminal. Now if somebody is getting in your way, you can just grab the logs and find a 'bad' site they visited.

Or imagine an even worse situation a sort of secret police force. The FBI shows up at Citizen A's house tells him they have incriminating evidence and that they want him to get dirt on Citzen's B, C, and D, or else theyll lock up him and his family. The possible wrong uses of this information are pretty far reaching when you really get down to it.

Years ago we were paranoid.
A coworker prefers to refer to it as Acutely Aware.

Now we're just extremely accurate futurists.

Doesn't Google already do this?

And not just for 2 years, but indefinitely, I believe.

Not sure what the terms are for the other major search engines.

reply to post by LadySkadi


As far as I know google and some other providers were doing that but it was only browsing history there was no origin information kept. Not only that but I believe google came out recently stating that they would refuse to give personal information past general stuff.

It's my take from reading the article that this is looking at exactly where and from the user is going to and coming from, namely it would give them an IP address which would contain all information needed to track/stalk a user plus if it was a social site in anyway it would give them the information of anyone that they interact with. So it's actually pretty potent even though it might not sound like too much.

reply to post by Awolscout

Ok. Thanks for the clarification.

This sounds concerning, no doubt.

The majority of internet users have no idea why you are so paranoid about having your websites logged. They visit news sites, media sites, social networking sites, and productivity sites.

but you can bet that the child porn addicts knows exactly how you feel. Hell, they probably aren't EVEN AS PARANOID as most people here are.

... and that is really saying something.

I am a tech savvy individual with a few years programing experience and never once really had a reason to learn to mask my ip address. Tonight i guess that's what i'll be doing.

Hmm, and what to make of the people who are 'borrowing' neighbors internet?

All a person would have to do is set up a unsecured wireless router in the home and they would have all deny ability.

I fully commend the FBI in thier attitude towards ridding the area they control of crime. Nothing could possibly endear them to me more. However, they must be reminded that if they wish to create a nation in which there is no true freedom, in which everyone is suspected until proven innocent (in direct contravention of current law) then they will undoubtedly make a bad problem worse. They will infact make the land of the free , require a thorough root and branch rebranding.
In the fight against terror , the most dangerous thing is over zealousness, and I can think of no greater over zealous action, than being able to observe everyones online affairs with impunity . This is a massive invasion of privacy, and one which will create more terrorists than it can ever hope to catch.
The other problem, is that when the Peados and sickos realise that there is no hiding place on the internet, these bastards will take to the streets every few months, and subject some poor child to a horror from which there is limited possibility of recovery. Again, this is creating a greater hazzard than it is countering.
There are also problems with the way the FBI classifies its actions, and the parameters by which a threat is assesed. In some cases it has been known for political groups in the US to be treated the same as planejackers even though the only motivation of the said group might be something as innocent as free speech campaigning , or calling for a multiparty government not the two party method.
In short, unless the FBI can be proven to be a moraly perfect group of persons, interested ONLY in the saftey of the PEOPLE of america , and not just the safety of its rulers, then they should not have this power, this near omnipresence that they are requesting. It is a power above thier moral ability to wield.

If you have nothing to hide, then why worry about it?

I do think it's an invasion of privacy but really...privacy was removed a long time ago..

Originally posted by CuriousSkeptic

I #ing hate this country.

Then leave...

I have learned and do a lot of illicit things on and thanks to the internet.

...and take your crime with you.

Seems like every other day there is a headline talking about war and control.