Beware - Your ISP is Watching You for the Government

Here is another big stinking pile of stupid security. [h/t TriggerFinger]

The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records of their customers' online activities.

Data retention rules could permit police to obtain records of e-mail chatter, Web browsing or chat-room activity months after Internet providers ordinarily would have deleted the logs--that is, if logs were ever kept in the first place. No U.S. law currently mandates that such logs be kept.

In theory, at least, data retention could permit successful criminal and terrorism prosecutions that otherwise would have failed because of insufficient evidence. But privacy worries and questions about the practicality of assembling massive databases of customer behavior have caused a similar proposal to stall in Europe and could engender stiff opposition domestically.

Sounds like this would open up a lot of fishing expeditions by the various "justice" branches of government. Privacy rights violations would be endemic. As for usefulness, just think about the size of the databases this would create and the storage requirements. Which then leads you to costs of such a program.

Impractical is putting it nicely, bloody idiotic is probably more appropriate.