National Sheriff’s Association throws its weight behind data retention laws

The National Sheriff’s Association says it will strongly support mandatory data retention by ISPs in a House of Representatives hearing tomorrow, CNET reports.

The association believes that ISPs don’t store information on their customer’s Internet usage for long enough, says board member Michael Brown.

Data retention schemes widely and rightfully evoke strong emotions from citizens in Western countries where the topic has been raised before. When the Attorney-General’s department proposed mandatory retention schemes in Australia last year, the public and press response was not particularly warm.

With laws like these floating around, forget about forgetting about that one time you accidentally clicked on some tranny porn. It’ll be the main topic of discussion at your next parking violation hearing.

The National Sheriff’s Association hinges their argument on the importance of data retention in subduing those involved in viewing and distributing child pornography. As a father of three, I’d like nothing more than to see an end to child pornography, and a start to particularly cruel and unusual executions for those involved in any way with it.

That said, giving any government more of our personal Internet activity and even email correspondence to snoop around in doesn’t sit well with me. Given the US government’s taste for snooping illegally, it’s pretty much a guarantee that the search for child predators won’t be the primary use for all that data to be retained should legislation be drafted and approved.