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Internet companies wary about having to preserve customer records
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Top U.S. law enforcement officials have told Internet companies they must retain customer records longer to help in child pornography and terrorism investigations, and they are considering asking Congress to require preservation of records.
Industry representatives are expected to meet Friday with Justice Department officials, a week after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller first raised the issue with executives from several Internet service providers, including AOL, Comcast (News - Alert), Google (News - Alert), Microsoft and Verizon (News - Alert).
The subject has prompted alarm from some executives and privacy advocates, especially after Gonzales' Justice Department took Google to court earlier this year to force it to turn over information on customer searches. Civil liberties groups also have sued Verizon and other telephone companies, alleging they are working with the government to provide information without search warrants on subscriber calling records.
Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, who attended the first meeting, said Thursday that some executives raised privacy concerns at the meeting. But she said Gonzales has not made any decisions about how to proceed and that the department would be mindful of the privacy issue.
"We are looking at whether requiring longer data retention or asking ISPs to do it informally is something we want to pursue," Brand said.
Mueller suggested a period of two years and said terrorism investigations also would be helped by such a rule, several people who attended the meeting said. Gonzales was focused on child pornography cases, they said.
Any proposal would not call for the content of communications to be preserved, would keep the information in the companies' hands and could be obtained by the government through a subpoena or other lawful process, Brand said.
Still, one Internet executive familiar with the meeting said one worry is that once retained, the records could be made available for any criminal investigation or civil case, "down to a bad divorce, up to a music company asking for people who visited a file trading site."
The executive, who requested anonymity because it was private meeting and the talks were still continuing, said the industry was likely to oppose any legislation for financial, privacy and technical reasons. The department's recent clash with Google probably will make the companies more resolute in their opposition, the executive said.
Several companies said they work hard to protect children online and often work with law enforcement.
"But data retention is a complicated issue with implications not only for efforts to combat child pornography but also for security, privacy, safety, and availability of low-cost or free Internet services," Microsoft (News - Alert) said in a statement.
In a statement, Google said, "Any proposals related to data require careful review and must balance the legitimate interests of individual users, law enforcement agencies and Internet companies."
The meetings are an outgrowth of Gonzales' interest in beefing up child porn investigations, some of which he said have been hampered by Internet companies' failure to retain records long enough.
Gonzales, who first raised the issue in an April speech, did not name any companies or cases. But a Justice Department official said some of the information provided by Justin Berry, a child pornography victim who testified to Congress in April, did not lead to arrests because authorities who sought help from ISPs were told the records no longer existed.
Berry criticized the department for acting too slowly on information he provided on 1,500 pedophiles. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because investigators still are looking into Berry's case.
At the moment, there are no broad requirements for preservation of data, although federal authorities can request records be maintained for up to six months when they suspect a crime has been committed.
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Associated Press Technology Editor Matthew Fordahl contributed to this report.
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