(Associated Press via NewsEdge) US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that Congress should require Internet providers to preserve customer records, asserting that prosecutors need them to fight child pornography.
Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller have met with several Internet providers, including Time Warner's AOL, Comcast, Google, Microsoft, and Verizon Communications.
The law enforcement officials have indicated to the companies they must retain customer records, possibly for two years. The companies have discussed strengthening their retention periods, which currently run the gamut from a few days to about a year, to help avoid legislation.
During those meetings, which took place earlier this summer, US Justice Department officials asserted that customer records would help them investigate child pornography cases.
But the FBI also said during the meetings that such records would help their terrorism investigations, said one person who attended the meetings but spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings were intended to be private.
Testifying to a Senate panel, Gonzales acknowledged the concerns of some company executives who say legislation might be overly intrusive and encroach on customers' privacy rights. But he said the growing threat of child pornography over the Internet was too great.
He called the government's lack of access to customer data the biggest obstacle to deterring child porn.
The subject has prompted some alarm among Internet service provider executives and civil liberties groups after the Justice Department took Google to court earlier this year to force it to turn over information on customer searches.
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