By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
Friday, June 2, 2006

Top U.S. law enforcement officials have told Internet companies that they must retain customer records longer to help in child-pornography and terrorism investigations and that they are considering asking Congress to require that records be preserved.

Industry representatives are to meet today with Justice Department officials, a week after Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III first raised the issue with executives from several Internet service providers, including AOL, Comcast Corp., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.

The subject has prompted alarm from some executives and privacy advocates, especially after the Justice Department took Google to court this year to force it to turn over information on customer searches. Civil liberties groups have sued Verizon and other telephone companies, alleging that they are providing the government with information, without search warrants, on subscriber calling records.

Assistant Attorney General Rachel L. Brand said yesterday that some executives raised privacy concerns at the first meeting. But she said Gonzales has not decided how to proceed and that the department would be mindful of privacy.

No proposal would call for the content of communications to be preserved, she said. The information would be kept in the companies' hands and could be obtained by the government through a subpoena or other lawful process, Brand said.

Several companies said they work hard to protect children online and often work with law enforcement.

"But data retention is a complicated issue with implications not only for efforts to combat child pornography but also for security, privacy, safety, and availability of low-cost or free Internet services," Microsoft said in a statement.

In a written statement, Google said, "Any proposals related to data require careful review and must balance the legitimate interests of individual users, law enforcement agencies and Internet companies."

The meetings are an outgrowth of Gonzales's interest in increasing investigations of child pornography.

Some investigations have been hampered by Internet companies' failure to retain records long enough, he said.

There are no broad requirements for preservation of data, although federal authorities can request that records be maintained for up to six months when they suspect that a crime has been committed.