U.S. attorney general calls for 'reasonable' data retention

The failure of some Internet service providers to retain user logs for a "reasonable amount of time" is hampering investigations into gruesome online sex crimes, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said. The Justice Department quietly shopped around the idea of legally required data retention. In a move that may have led to broader interest inside the United States, the European Parliament last December approved such a requirement for Internet, telephone and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers. Congress is now considering similar policy changes.

Australia: free porn filters for everyone!

6/21/2006

The Australian government is announcing a plan to provide free Internet filtering software to every Australian family that wants to use it. The move comes as some in the government were pushing for filters at the server level; that is, forcing ISPs to filter certain kinds of pornography before it could reach end users.