Unidentified police officials monitor computers and cameras at the FBI Joint Operations Center the security nerve center for the Super Bowl XLIV in Plantation Fla. on Wednesday Feb. 3 2010. (AP Photo by J Pat Carter)

By Declan McCullagh
CNet News
February 5 2010

WASHINGTON鈥揟he FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.

FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users鈥?鈥渙rigin and destination information鈥?a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.

As far back as a 2006 speech Mueller had called for data retention on the part of Internet providers and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited which few if any currently do.

The FBI is not alone in renewing its push for data retention. As CNET reported earlier this week a survey of state computer crime investigators found them to be nearly unanimous in supporting the idea. Matt Dunn an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Department of Homeland Security also expressed support for the idea during the task force meeting.

Greg Motta the chief of the FBI鈥檚 digital evidence section said that the bureau was trying to preserve its existing ability to conduct criminal investigations. Federal regulations in place since at least 1986 require phone companies that proffer toll service to 鈥渞etain for a period of 18 months鈥?records including 鈥渢he name address and telephone number of the caller telephone number called date time and length of the call.鈥?/p>

At Thursday鈥檚 meeting (PDF) of the Online Safety and Technology Working Group which was created by Congress and organized by the U.S. Department of Commerce Motta stressed that the bureau was not asking that content data such as the text of e-mail messages be retained.

鈥淭he question at least for the bureau has been about non-content transactional data to be preserved: transmission records non-content records鈥?ddressing routing signaling of the communication鈥?Motta said. Director Mueller recognizes he added 鈥渢here鈥檚 going to be a balance of what industry can bear鈥?e recommends origin and destination information for non-content data.鈥?/p>

Motta pointed to a 2006 resolution from the International Association of Chiefs of Police which called for the 鈥渞etention of customer subscriber information and source and destination information for a minimum specified reasonable period of time so that it will be available to the law enforcement community.鈥?/p>

Recording what Web sites are visited though is likely to draw both practical and privacy objections.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not set up to keep URL information anywhere in the network鈥?said Drew Arena Verizon鈥檚 vice president and associate general counsel for law enforcement compliance.

And Arena added 鈥渋f you were do to deep packet inspection to see all the URLs you would arguably violate the Wiretap Act.鈥?/p>

Another industry representative with knowledge of how Internet service providers work was unaware of any company keeping logs of what Web sites its customers visit.

If logs of Web sites visited began to be kept they would be available only to local state and federal police with legal authorization such as a subpoena or search warrant.

What remains unclear are the details of what the FBI is proposing. The possibilities include requiring an Internet provider to log the Internet protocol (IP) address of a Web site visited or the domain name such as cnet.com a host name such as news.cnet.com or the actual URL such as http://reviews.cnet.com/Music/2001-6450_7-0.html.

While the first three categories could be logged without doing deep packet inspection the fourth category would require it. That could run up against opposition in Congress which lambasted the concept in a series of hearings in 2008 causing the demise of a company NebuAd which pioneered it inside the United States.

The technical challenges also may be formidable. John Seiver an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine who represents cable providers said one of his clients had experience with a law enforcement request that required the logging of outbound URLs.

鈥淓ighteen million hits an hour would have to have been logged鈥?a staggering amount of data to sort through Seiver said. The purpose of the FBI鈥檚 request was to identify visitors to two URLs 鈥渢o try to find out鈥?ho鈥檚 going to them.鈥?/p>

A Justice Department representative said the department does not have an official position on data retention.

Disclosure: The author of this story participated in the meeting of the Online Safety and Technology Working Group though after the law enforcement representatives spoke.

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