Gonzales Wants Internet Records Saved

GONZALES WANTS INTERNET RECORDS SAVED
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: Hope Yen]
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that Congress should require Internet providers to preserve customer records, asserting that prosecutors need them to fight child pornography. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller have met with several Internet providers, including Time Warner's AOL, Comcast Corp., Google, Microsoft Corp. and Verizon Communications. The law enforcement officials have indicated to the companies they must retain customer records, possibly for two years. The companies have discussed strengthening their retention periods -- which currently run the gamut from a few days to about a year -- to help avoid legislation. During those meetings, which took place earlier this summer, Justice Department officials asserted that customer records would help them investigate child pornography cases. But the FBI also said during the meetings that such records would help their terrorism investigations, said one person who attended the meetings but spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings were intended to be private. Testifying to a Senate panel, Gonzales acknowledged the concerns of some company executives who say legislation might be overly intrusive and encroach on customers' privacy rights. But he said the growing threat of child pornography over the Internet was too great.
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