Data retention legislation in the US and Europe

In this morning's New York Times Victoria Shannon reports that "European governments are preparing legislation to require companies to keep detailed data about people’s Internet and phone use that goes beyond what the countries will be required to do under a European Union directive." The EU Data Retention Directive is here (PDF).

Along similar lines in the United States, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) recently introduced H.R. 836837, the Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth (SAFETY) Act. The bill would require ISPs to retain data pursuant to regulations issued by the Attorney General. (Currently there is no general federal data retention requirement for ISPs.)

UPDATE: The original post linked to H.R. 836, which was the wrong bill. The SAFETY Act is H.R. 837. But H.R. 836, the Cyber-Security Enhancement and Consumer Data Protection Act of 2007, also introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith, is interesting in its own right. This bill would amend the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. 1030. A potentially significant amendment would be the effective elimination of the damage requirement in the CFAA. Currently, for computers other than government computers, a person must cause at least $5000 in damage in a one-year period to violate the CFAA. H.R. 836 would create an offense for any amount of damage to 10 or more computers in a one-year period.

"Judge Limits New York Police Taping"

The New York Times reports that a federal judge in Manhattan has ordered the New York Police Department to stop videotaping and photographing individuals and groups involved in politically oriented activities, unless the Police Department has an objective that is permissible under court-approved guidelines (which went into effect prior to September 11, 2001). The article links to a copy of yesterday's order.

"Wireless sensors extend reach of Internet into the real world"

USA Today's article, "Wireless sensors extend reach of Internet into the real world" discusses wireless sensors, privacy and the work at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing.

"Cyber officials: Chinese hackers attack 'anything and everything'"

Federal Computer Week's article, "Cyber officials: Chinese hackers attack 'anything and everything'" discusses attacks at the Naval Network Warfare Command.