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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I read the article to say that an ISP is required to simply maintain a record that you sent an email or looked at a sight, not what that email said or what you specifically posted to that site. I see it as more of a phone company analogy where they maintain a record that you called a specific number but not what you said. Did I misread the data being collected?
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You could be right in your interpretation of the existing law but I'll be darned if I can figure it out. The link for what I think is the existing law is below:
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ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSACTIONAL RECORDS ACCESS
The part that covers retention time is :
(f) Requirement to preserve evidence.--
(1) In general.--A provider of wire or electronic communication services or a remote computing service, upon the request of a governmental entity, shall take all necessary steps to preserve records and other evidence in its possession pending the issuance of a court order or other process.
(2) Period of retention.--Records referred to in paragraph (1) shall be retained for a period of 90 days, which shall be extended for an additional 90-day period upon a renewed request by the governmental entity.
I think the paragraph (1) being referred to is:
(a) Contents of wire or electronic communications in electronic storage.--A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communication service of the contents of a wire or electronic communication, that is in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for one hundred and eighty days or less, only pursuant to a warrant issued using the procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure by a court with jurisdiction over the offense under investigation or equivalent State warrant. A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic communications services of the contents of a wire or electronic communication that has been in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for more than one hundred and eighty days by the means available under subsection (b) of this section.
(b) Contents of wire or electronic communications in a remote computing service.--(1) A governmental entity may require a provider of remote computing service to disclose the contents of any wire or electronic communication to which this paragraph is made applicable by paragraph (2) of this subsection--
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Even if this is interpreted to be only the records of correspondence and not the contents I still don't like it. Then I guess it would be like asking the postal dept. to keep a record of every letter you send and receive. It still seems like blanket surveillance of citizens activities.