New House bill will take away all your Internet privacy

We all have our dirty little Internet secrets. For some, it’s enjoying the blogs at Worldgolf.com and Travelgolf.com. For others, it’s racier fare, like say, taking a look at the latest offering from CaddyChick.com. There’s even some that enjoy the truly nasty and disturbing areas of the Internet, like Chris Baldwin’s blog, for example.

But seriously, we all have our secrets. Unless, of course, Texas lawmaker Lamar Smith gets his way. Because if Smith’s “Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY) of 2007″ gets through, you’ll never have any privacy on the Internet again.

The bill would require that ISPs record and maintain all Web activity of all users. That includes, well, everything. IM conversations, E-mails and Web surfing will all be recorded and maintained, lest the ISP face penalties of up to a year in prison.

You know, for the children.

Basically, if you don’t mind having the government keep track of your every online movement … forever, then this is just the bill for you. Because even if you’re 100 percent sure in your heart of hearts that the Internet breeds pedophiliac vampires that will stop at nothing to get your child, this bill has absolutely nothing to do with keeping children safe. After all, the last major legislation passed to protect children was pushed through by Mark Foley, who believed the best thing he could do for a child was to try and sleep with him.

This has nothing to do with protecting children. It has nothing to do with stopping the terrorists. It’s about taking your privacy. And oddly enough, no one makes the case better than Smith himself:

“This invasion of privacy can adversely affect Americans’ lives. These records can reveal details of our medical or financial life. The records can identify our occupation or physical location – a serious concern for undercover police officers and victims of stalking or domestic violence,” said Smith earlier this year when his “Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act” was signed into law. Last month.

If Smith believes phone privacy is so vital, why is it that Internet activity needs to be monitored? Don’t let it happen.

Read the full bill here.

To contact Rep. Lamar Smith
For an online form, click here.
Phone: (202) 225-4236

To find and contact your Representative, click here.

–WKW