How much liberty and privacy am I willing to surrender to be protected from terrorists? How about child pornographers? Who else do I need to be protected from? Drug dealers? Telemarketers? Strangers with candy? FedGov is treading a very, very slippery slope.
The Justice Department said Thursday that it was not seeking to have e-mail content archived, just information about the websites people visit and those with whom they correspond.
Beyond law enforcement, though, the trove also could be available to lawyers arguing civil lawsuits — including divorce cases and suits against people suspected of swapping copyrighted movie and music files online. Privacy advocates fear the user histories could be exploited by criminal investigators conducting inappropriate exploration or pursuing minor cases.
“This is not simply limited to kiddie porn or terrorism. It’s a real break with precedent,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Data retention is open-ended. The government is saying, ‘Keep everything about everyone and we’ll sort it out later.’ “
The real problem here is that government is sending a clear message that is contrary to long held American ideas about justice. They are, in essence, saying that we are all guilty until proven innocent. Otherwise, why would they need EVERYONE’s data?
I’m not sure I want to live in a place where the government trusts me less than I trust it. President Bush should reign in the nannies. You can’t protect us from terrorists by treating us all like criminals.