FBI wants ISPs to track user site visits

The FBI is pressing for internet service providers (ISPs) to track the websites visited by their customers and to maintain two years worth of such information for use in their investigations.

This is not a new request by the FBI, or other law enforcement organizations for that matter, but it does strike a disturbing tone for user privacy issues. During the course of a Federal law enforcement task force meeting, FBI head Robert Mueller reiterated a request he had made nearly four years ago and has been asking for ever since. He wants internet service providers (the companies through which users access the internet) to keep track of all Web sites visited by all users and to retain that information for at least two years, terming it to be “origin and destination information” that would help his agency solve crimes involving internet usage.

On the other side of this issue are the ISPs themselves, who do not now retain such information and do not want to, as well as privacy advocates that do not welcome any further government intrusion into the privacy of individuals. Both of these groups believe that complying with this sort of tracking would be both costly and illegal, according to laws already on the books, according to a CNET article. Drew Arena, Verizon’s vice president and associate general counsel for law enforcement compliance is typical, saying “We’re not set up to keep URL information anywhere in the network.” and adding that “if you were do to deep packet inspection to see all the URLs, you would arguably violate the Wiretap Act.”

This issue is a continuation of the age-old battle between law enforcement’s desire to know everything about everybody all the time, a la Big Brother, and most of the rest of us, who would prefer that the government keep their noses out of their private business. A number of recent conservative administrations have enabled law enforcement’s desire to delve into the private lives of all citizens, and those more liberal presidents have had little luck in rolling back the presence of government in our private lives. Big brother from 1984 may have just been a little delayed.

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