Another sweet gem of ignorance has been dispensed from the Utah Legislature. HB407 asks for creation of a “Community Conscious Internet Provider” seal, which can then be used by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) for marketing their virtue. Where it gets fun is how it asks the ISP to voluntarily give up the 4th Amendment protection of its customers. Line 85 reads, “cooperate with any law enforcement agency by providing records sufficient to identify a customer if the law enforcement agency requests the information and supplies reasonable proof that a crime has been committed using the Internet service provider’s service”. It says nothing of reasonable proof being determined by a judge and thusly issuing a court order.
XMission has always taken the stand that if you want customer information you’re going to need a court order. This act asks us to discard that stance in order to use a “seal” in our marketing. If we at some point decide the seal isn’t worth our customers’ privacy or we somehow fail to uphold the requirements of this law, then XMission is subject to a fine of $10,000.
To its credit, the bill makes handing over my customers’ privacy to the state completely voluntary. No thanks.
5 Comments On This Topic
The constant drumbeat of Constitutional infringements continue the slow slide towards fascism. I’ve never been the tin foil hat wearing type, but these sorts of things are terribly disturbing. Besides, why spend time promoting a bill like this that does not have the effect of law? It sounds like a complete and total waste of taxpayer money.
Slashdot’s coverage of this bill ( http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/02/26/1757252.shtml ) has no mention of this 4th amendment twist.
@Daniel Axelrod,
Thanks, I’ve entered a comment that links back to this article where most people will see it in that discussion this late in the game.
Thanks for the heads up. Time to pull on a few rep’s chains to make sure they understand why this is a bad thing.
Sounds like we need to have a similar meeting with Representative Morley that we did with Daw. Maybe we can talk some sense into him.