All Wi-Fi Networks Would Need To Keep Records under New Law

Veteran tech political reporter Declan McCullagh determines Internet Safety Act would apply to everyone who runs a Wi-Fi network: The law imposes unheralded requirements for keeping records on who accesses a given network, something that governments want to track criminals (often citing child-pornography downloaders) regardless of the cost to individuals and businesses in dollars, sense, time, and privacy. Odd how the Republicans back this so strongly; it’s the law-and-order thing. But Dems are behind a similar version of the bill.

The act would requires two years worth of data being stored for anyone providing “an electronic communication service or remote computing service.” McCullagh’s analysis is that this applies to basically every kind of network everywhere run for any purpose by anyone.

He writes:

That sweeps in not just public Wi-Fi access points, but password-protected ones too, and applies to individuals, small businesses, large corporations, libraries, schools, universities, and even government agencies. Voice over IP services may be covered too.


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Wee-Fi: Wi-Spy DBx, Auckland-Fi, WeFi Hotspot Directory