Last Friday we reported that the U.S. White House was planning a new proposition: Internet Service Providers should help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. Today we can find a follow-up story on the News.com website:
As it finalizes sweeping guidelines that aim to increase cybersecurity, the Bush administration said individual privacy would not be affected by efforts to prevent cyberattacks. "The administration is not considering a proposal to monitor what individuals do on the Internet," a spokesman for the transition to the newly created Department of Homeland Security said. |
High-tech companies, meanwhile, said they would resist government efforts to get involved in the day-to-day operation of the global computer network.
[...] But high-tech sources who had been briefed on the updated plans said they were not aware of any such change, and White House cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke assured high-tech firms the government only wanted them to set up an "early warning system" to keep an eye on the health of the Internet.
"This early warning system would, if companies chose to create it, involve only highly aggregated information on the overall health of the Internet," Clarke said in a letter.
According to the article there are many reasons why internet users and ISPs will not cooperate with the Bush administration's proposition. You can read more information on this here.
Source: News.com
