Big Brother Wants Better Lenses
Good thing we’ve got a more liberal, civil liberties-minded administration in power, isn’t it? Not.
Criminal investigations ‘are being frustrated’ because no law currently exists to force Internet providers to keep track of what their customers are doing, the U.S. Department of Justice will announce tomorrow.
CNET obtained a copy of the department’s position on mandatory data retention–saying Congress should strike a “more appropriate balance” between privacy and police concerns–that will be announced at a House of Representatives hearing tomorrow.
“Data retention is fundamental to the department’s work in investigating and prosecuting almost every type of crime,” Jason Weinstein, deputy assistant attorney general for the criminal division, will say, according to his written testimony. “The problem of investigations being stymied by a lack of data retention is growing worse.”
Forgive me if I’m slightly skeptical about the concept that too little private data is being collected on us over the Internet. The real problem, most likely, is that because the DOJ is barred from collecting and storing that data itself–unless it is directly connected to an specific investigation or intelligence matter–it has wearied of paying the private corporations that do it for them.
But the idea that they have no access to any data they want in this day and age? Laughable.






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