US government leans on ISPs to store user data

THE US government is leaning on ISPs to hold onto to records of punter's online activities for two years.

According to the Seattle Pi, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has met with AOL, Comcast, Google, Microsoft and Verizon and has been warning them if they do not do as they are told, he will press for legislation to make it happen.

The ISPs, so terrified that laws will be brought in by Generalismo Gonzales, are offering to hold data for a year on a voluntary basis.

The FBI has insisted that if such data is held, they will mine it for information on terrorism. However it is clear that Gonzales is not talking about that much in his chats with Senators, presumably because he is more likely to get support for his law change if he raises the spectre of child porn.

He claims that the growing threat of child pornography was too great and it did not matter if legislation might be overly intrusive and encroach on customers'privacy rights.

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