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No excuse for this: A new bill that is much worse than SOPA/PIPA..

Um.

Look, seriously though. This is how the internet works. Of course your ISP knows everywhere you go and everything you do on the internet; they pretty much can’t not know that, unless you’re doing some hardcore encrypted proxying (and, even then, they can probably strip and inspect most of that anyway, should they want to).

The issue isn’t the fact that ISPs collect this information; the issue is about the data retention timeframe and what due process exists around who can access the information and why. At the moment your ISP is probably collecting this data and selling it to marketing firms or whatever (hello, “awesome” US data privacy ownership laws). It can already be extracted via court orders; how else do you think RIAA prosecutes little children who download pirated music? The issue is how long your ISP has to keep collecting it. If the FBI (or, more likely, RIAA) knocks on your ISP’s door tomorrow and demands your internet records from October 2010, it’s hit-and-miss as to whether those records are available. Laws like this are basically about mandating the length of time your ISP has to archive the logs it — I guarantee you — already keeps.

Let’s get this straight, though, because the level of FUD and misinformation in the reblogs — not to mention the original article — is laughable: Your internet usage is already tracked. By almost everyone. Because it’s valuable, it’s marketable. And it’s not the government you should be scared of; it’s the Facebooks and the Googles of the web. (Oh, and Old Media and their crusade against the Piracy Bogeyman, of course. ISP data retention laws benefit them, too. Coincidentally.)

Every website you visit that has a Facebook “Like” or Google “+1″ button on it? Guess what: Those companies know you’ve visited that site. The amount of information Google could correlate against you is terrifying; every search term, every email, every website you’ve visited that had a +1 button or snippet of Google Analytics code. Do you have an Android phone? Now it also knows everywhere you’ve ever been, too. Does Google retain this data? Indefinitely-or-something-like-it? You bet your modem it does. Your ISP’s logs are small potatoes compared to that.

Point being: You are already tracked, and that information is already shared. Ironically, at the moment, it’s shared with just about everyone other than the government. Go figure.

ISP data retention is contentious, but it’s not “much worse” than SOPA. Even trying to make that claim displays an ignorance of the way the internet works that’s on par with the reason SOPA’s original proponents were mocked for all their “well I’m not a nerd” comments.

Well, “ignorance” or “deliberate FUD-spreading for headlines and the whipping-up of anti-government paranoia”. Take your pick.

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