What Happened to Privacy?

Title: What happened to Privacy?

Word Count: 981

News Item: FBI director wants ISPs to track users, Retrieved November 10, 2006 from http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6126877.html

Area of Impact: Politics and Government

Author: Declan McCullagh

Source: CNET News

URL: http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6126877.html

Date of Publication: October 17th, 2006

Date of Submission: January 10, 2007

APresentation of the Issue

"According to the FBI, crimes such as terrorism, hacking, espionage, and child pornography are increasingly perpetrated via, or with the assistance of, the Internet." (Trace Your Email). Recently, many criminals have been using the Internet as their medium for criminal activity. Sexual predators, hackers, and large-scale criminals have found their way into chat rooms, company databases, and secure websites. They have lured kids into sexual deeds, intercepted business transactions and made the Internet unsafe.

As a result, the FBI has decided to fight these "online criminals" in their own backyard, the Internet. However, in order to do so, the FBI needs to have access to each person's Internet-related files that monitor his/her Internet activities. These files are stored by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that a person is subscribed to.

The FBI has recently "called on Internet Service Providers to record their customers' online activities, a move that anticipates a fierce debate over privacy and law enforcement in Washington next year." (McCullagh, 2006)

Not only has the internet made way for new forms of criminal activity, but could it be that it would also be an invasion of privacy and anonymity?

BThe IT Background of the Issue

With the quick pace of our current world, it is imperative that we send and receive information over long distances very quickly. The Internet has made it possible to do so. Internet Service Providers in turn allow users to connect to the Internet by dialing a local number, which connects to the ISP and then to the Internet. When connected, the user becomes a member on the network, which is one of millions of networks in our World Wide Web.

Internet Service Providers work by receiving data from various computers on the network and routing it to its desired location. ISPs should all be connected in agreement, to ensure proper transmission of information along the web. Therefore, ISPs need "peering agreements" with other ISPs, and "peering points", which are the connections between different service providers, through which data can be exchanged. These numerous connections allow for millions of different pathways for information to be sent and received.

Next, the ISP has to connect with its clients. In order to do so, ISPs must provide their customers with online applications, web mail, login names, passwords, and the necessary equipment to connect to the server. To complete the setup, a user must subscribe to a telecommunications company that provides access to a telephone line and the necessary wires and cables. After the setup is installed, the customer needs to subscribe to the ISP. ISPs usually offer monthly subscription and provide services such as web access, web-hosting, and networking.

Technically, the FBI wants ISPs to create log files that record the exact time a user visits a certain website, his IP address (Internet Protocol), and the exact files that were viewed on a site. ISPs have to be connected through a local loop circuit, which can be done either through a phone line or wireless technology. Then the ISP has to connect to a router and configure Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), a quick routing application that allows an ISP's routing information to be distributed to all members on the network. This way, the FBI can find out what a criminal has been doing online and when, and this might help them catch the criminal.

CImpact of the Issue

The Internet is becoming more and more popular by the day. This is due to the easy and quick access of information and the ability to send and receive data instantly.

With the increase in number of users online, Internet Service Providers have become more and more successful. They provide us with connectivity to the net, place millions of news articles at our fingertips, allow us to chat, and allow us a large amount of disk space to download files. However, this is not all they do. ISPs monitor their customers' web activities by storing e-mail, times of connection to the Internet, websites visited and other online activities. (Internet service providers, 2005)

The popularity and simplicity of the web has led to the increase in criminal activity online. Sexual predators, hackers and terrorists have adopted the web as their sanctuary. As a result, the FBI has decided to take certain measures to eradicate criminal activity online. It is calling out to ISPs to send all its customers' Internet information to the FBI, to be used in investigation when needed. This is where the issue of privacy arises.

To start off with, ISPs have all of our usernames and passwords, our credit card information, and know everything we are doing online, and when we are doing it. The real problem here is not technology; it is actually the government and the law, which have yet to step in and solve the issue. Instead of attaining privacy, recent laws have diminished our rights and made our personal information available to the police and others. This goes against the Constitution, which enriches our privacy rights. In order for a democracy to flourish, there must be respect for an individual's freedom of speech and affiliation. (Privacy, 2007)

Although ISPs play a major role in providing secure connections, the majority of people are more concerned about their privacy and anonymity online. They become furious at the thought of their personal information being exposed online, stored by an ISP, or even sent off to the FBI.

DA Solution to a Problem Arising from the Issue

One solution to the issue is for ISPs to come up with privacy policies that ensure customers' privacy and protects them from criminal activity online. A privacy policy should explain how the ISP is using the client's personal information and should provide the client with choices about the level of privacy that he/she would like to ensure. The policy should include a section about protection of teenagers from predators for example. Clients should agree to the policy before subscribing to the ISP. However, monitoring a client's internet activity is sometimes imposed by governmental and federal authorities and ISPs are forced to comply, despite privacy policies. In conclusion, ISPs should provide users with a safe and functional connection to the Internet and ensure their privacy and anonymity online, while maintaining a clear agreement with their clients about their rights and responsibilities.

Word count: 997

ESelection and Use of Sources

References:

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McCullagh, D. (2006) FBI director wants ISPs to track users. Retrieved November 10, 2006 from http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6126877.html

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Privacy policy: Netscape Internet service membership agreement, Retrieved January 5, 2007 from http://www.getnetscape.com/privacypolicy.adp

Trace your e-mail. Retrieved January 5, 2007 from http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/g0907/63g07/63g07.asp&guid=