[Infowarrior] - Comcast to log Internet usage longer

[Richard Forno]

URL: 
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4806781,0
0.html
Comcast to log Internet usage longer

Colorado child porn case spurs company to change its policy

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News
June 28, 2006

WASHINGTON - An outcry over a Colorado child pornography case has prompted
the nation's largest broadband provider to change its policy on retaining
Internet user records.

Comcast announced Tuesday that the company will begin keeping records
identifying account holders for 180 days - nearly six times longer than
their current policy - in an effort to assist law enforcement.

It was a reaction to congressional outrage over a case that came to light
this year at a hearing of an investigative subcommittee of the House Energy
and Commerce Committee.

In April, Flint Waters, lead special agent for the Wyoming task force on
Internet Crimes Against Children, testified about being thwarted in an
investigation into a videotape circulating on the Internet that depicted the
rape of a 2-year-old child.

Waters testified that investigators traced the video to a computer in
Colorado, but could not identify the sender because Comcast had not retained
records on the account holder's identity.

"I'm sure that just makes all your employees around the country feel sick,"
committee member Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, said to Comcast's chief
privacy officer, Gerard Lewis, at a follow-up hearing on Tuesday.

"No one feels that more acutely than I do," Lewis said.

Lewis said that at the time, Comcast had a policy of retaining records for
only 31 days.

Meanwhile, because of computer problems during a renovation of Comcast's
Internet Protocol (or IP) network last year, "we had significant
difficulties in meeting many law enforcement requests," he said.

Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said the 31-day policy was "almost criminal"
in an age of rampant online crimes targeting children.

Lewis announced that starting later this year, Comcast plans to retain
records that help identify users of specific Internet Protocol, or IP
addresses, for 180 days.

"Because of the importance of child safety, we want to do more," Lewis
testified.

Lewis said the shorter data-retention period was established at a time when
various state and federal lawmakers were raising privacy concerns, "so we
erred on the side of setting a shorter time period."

The 180-day period still is far short of the seven years that service
provider Earthlink Inc. retains records.

It's also half of the one-year period that DeGette wants to impose on
Internet providers through planned legislation.

Still, DeGette applauded Comcast's announcement as a step in the right
direction.

"Child pornography on the Internet is burgeoning. It is exploding out of
control and it's time for everybody in society to take this seriously and
look at some serious steps to control it," she said, pointing out that
telephone companies must keep phone call records for 18 months.

Comcast officials stressed that their new policy only meant retaining
customer IP address assignments. To protect customers' privacy, Comcast does
not plan to retain specific e-mail messages, histories of visited Web sites
or similar types of information.

Comcast is Colorado's largest cable television provider. It also provides
broadband services to more than 8.5 million customers nationwide.

Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.