Microsoft, AOL, Google Asked by U.S. to Keep Internet Records June 1 (Bloomberg) – The U.S. is asking Internet companies including Microsoft Corp., Google Inc. and AOL to preserve records of customers’ Web activity to aid terrorism and child pornography investigations.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller made the request last week at a meeting with industry executives, said Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman. More talks are scheduled for today and tomorrow. Also included in the discussions are representatives from victims’ rights groups, privacy advocates and law enforcement officials, he said.
We have begun initial discussions with Internet service providers and others on this issue of data retention to help the department with bolstering its investigative efforts,'' said Roehrkasse. Gonzales is pressing Internet companies for more cooperation as the Justice Department focuses on terrorism and child pornography cases. The move has prompted complaints from privacy advocates and led to a clash earlier this year with Google, the word's largest search engine. The agency has asked Internet companies to retain records such as lists of e-mails sent and received or information on Web searches. Authorities wouldn't ask the companies to keep the content of e-mails and would use standard legal channels, such as seeking a subpoena, before obtaining information, Roehrkasse said. The Justice Department has no legal authority to require companies to keep data on their customers and would need to ask Congress for that ability, Roehrkasse said. He said there has been no decision on how long companies would need to store the records. Retaining Records New York-based Verizon Communications Inc., the No. 2 U.S. telephone company, and Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable provider, were among the companies at last week's meeting, Roehrkasse said. AOL is the Internet unit of New York-based Time Warner Inc., the world's largest media company. Gonzales said in April that Internet service providers had hurt child pornography probes by not keeping data long enough. He said he would personally reach out to chief executive officers of leading providers to resolve the problem.The investigation and prosecution of child predators depends critically on the availability of evidence that is often in the hands of Internet service providers,’’ Gonzales said in a April 20 speech at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. This evidence will be available for us to use only if the providers retain the records for a reasonable amount of time.'' Privacy Concerns Earlier this year, the Justice Department sparred with Google over a request for information on its customer searches. In March, a federal judge ordered the Mountain View, California-based company to turn over some of the records demanded by the government. Google initially had refused to give the government the information citing privacy concerns. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, AOL and Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo! Inc. cooperated with the Justice Department. Yahoo is the most-visited U.S. Web site. Microsoft, the world's biggest software company, owns the MSN Internet service.We strongly support Attorney General Gonzales’ interest in assuring that the Internet is safe for everyone, especially children and families,’’ Phil Reitinger, senior security strategist for Microsoft, said in an e-mailed statement. ``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.’’
To contact the reporter on this story:
Robert Schmidt in Washington at [email protected].
Last Updated: June 1, 2006 12:55 EDT
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