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Coalition Letter to Protect Online Privacy
Posted by James Leroy Wilson

DownsizeDC.org is part of a coalition of 30 organizations expressing privacy concerns in bill H.R. 1981, the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act."

Section 4 of the bill would, for the first time, "force companies that provide Internet access to keep large volumes of records on their customers." Contrary to the title of the bill, "the records would involve all Internet users everywhere and they would be available to law enforcement for any purpose."

This is an invasion of the privacy of "hundreds of millions of Americans who have no connection to the sexual exploitation of children whatsoever."

This is why we sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith and Ranking Member John Conyers opposing this provision.

You may see the letter here and read it below:

generating records – what we read, where we go, who our friends are. If those records must
always be saved for future use, they become a persistent and pervasive assault on our privacy and an irresistible temptation to law enforcement. That is why best practices in privacy demand the deletion of records as soon as they are no longer necessary – exactly the opposite of the mandate of H. R. 1981.

Existing laws are wholly insufficient in protecting against access to such records. As this
Committee has recognized in previous hearings, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
(ECPA) has not been substantially updated since 1986, while the type and detail of records have increased dramatically since that time. The data retention mandate of H.R. 1981 would
exacerbate ECPA’s problems, making records available and identifiable for even longer periods of time.

For all of these reasons, we urge the committee to withhold approval of H.R. 1981 in any
form containing section 4 or any other data retention mandate.
Sincerely,

Advocacy for Principled Action in Government
American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression
American Civil Liberties Union
American Library Association
Association of Research Libraries
Bill of Rights Defense committee
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Digital Democracy
Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights
Center for Media and Democracy
Center for National Security Studies
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of America
Consumer Watchdog
Council on American-Islamic Relations
Defending Dissent Foundation
Demand Progress
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Friends of Privacy USA
Liberty Coalition
Muslim Public Affairs Council
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Workrights Institute
Patient Privacy Rights
Privacy Activism
Privacy Journal, Robert Ellis Smith, Publisher
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
World Privacy Forum

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GOD'S WORD FOR TODAY
Psalms 100:5
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. Psalms 100:5 (KJV)

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