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Law Requires Italian Web Cafes to Record ID 207

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the papers-please dept.
Armadni General writes "CNN is reporting that a new Italian law requires that all businesses offering public internet access, such as web cafes, to identify and record all customers. While supporters of this law trumpet its anti-terrorism potential, still others see no such advantage and bemoan this invasion of personal privacy. 'They must be able, if necessary, to track the sites visited by their clients. [...] Contents of people's e-mail is, however, supposed to remain private and can only be made available to law enforcement through a court order. Italy also obliges telecommunications companies to keep traffic data and European ministers agreed last week to require the carriers to retain records of calls and e-mails for a maximum of two years. The European Parliament's two largest groups endorsed the data retention initiative on Wednesday despite complaints from privacy advocates and telecoms, and the full body is expected to adopt a bill next week.'"
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Law Requires Italian Web Cafes to Record ID More

Law Requires Italian Web Cafes to Record ID

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  • as an italian... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LkDotCom ( 912073 ) * <lk@lastk n i g h t .com> on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:39AM (#14232691) Homepage
    It's just bad to to have to submit to this law...
    But having to read it on /. is the very bottm... :(

    • Re:as an italian... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @08:10AM (#14232759)
      Aah, so you see now what Americans have to bear with every day: fascistic laws *and* having to read them on /. too :)

    • Re:as an italian... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Spacejock ( 727523 )
      Just curious here. What happens if you plug a memory stick into the net cafe PC and run linux on an emu? (I can't remember the exact name of the distro now - I've got a couple of installs around here somewhere.) If you read your email & browse the web via a home server using an ssh link - even vnc via SSH if you're on broadband. In that situation, aren't they stuffed when it comes to recording everything you're up to? And if they object to running things off memory sticks, what if you use your own lapt
      • Just curious here. What happens if you plug a memory stick into the net cafe PC and run linux on an emu?

        Most internet cafes I've patronized didn't allow you to run anything other than their own programs, namely an account manager or activator, a web browser, email client, and IMs, as well as online games that were pre-installed by the owners. The machines also won't boot a removable media, and the bios is passworded. I've even known a web cafe where all the machines ran a watchdog, and an alarm would ring i
        • but couldn't you just go through their proxy, to your own proxy, and encrypt everything between your own proxy, and the computer you are on?
          • but couldn't you just go through their proxy, to your own proxy,...

            A lot simpler, and less likely to get busted, just wardrive/walk around town and find an open network.

            • Re:as an italian... (Score:5, Insightful)

              by Catbeller ( 118204 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @01:18PM (#14233968) Homepage
              Still not getting the pattern... soon, open networks will be illegal. Very soon.

              Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, the answer to ever dictator's dream for total control of a free society. When they were using Russia as an excuse, they used nukes and communism as the basis for militarizing "the free world". That's out the window, now, and even tho China is technically communist, they are the nation principally funding our tax cuts, so we can't use them as the boogieman. They own us. Now, it's an eternal war against a common noun that by definition is unwinnable. How do you defeat "terror"? To keep the war going, all our new masters have to do is go "wooga wooga wooga" and everyone handcuffs themselves to a railing and tip off the new lords about all the suspicious brown people they've noticed.

              1938.
      • Hardware keyloggers can get anything you type. But it would be a poorly run Internet cafe indeed that allowed its users to run untrusted code off random devices, let alone boot a whole different OS from them.
        • that assumes they care about being "well run". what incentive do they have to do anything more than plug a few pcs into a broadband router and take money for using them?
      • That's also assuming that someone with a broadband internet connection at home is the type to pay to use an internet cafe. They already bought a nice computer and are paying for broadband at home. There may be a couple people that are in that situation, but how many are knowledgable to do VNC over SSH? Plus, the performance would suck ass.
        • > VNC over SSH? Plus, the performance would suck ass.

          Maybe if you're using a 386... the cryptography done by SSH is actually very fast. The thing that makes VNC slow is that it sucks. (X11 and Apple Remote Desktop and whatever M$ has are much much much better and more efficient.)

    • Re:as an italian... (Score:5, Informative)

      by mbaciarello ( 800433 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @09:18AM (#14232899)

      It's been on the news for months. The proposed bill, announced July 27, has actually been enacted as an executive provision ("decreto ministeriale," ministerial decree) by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It's now awaiting ratification by Parliament, which is required to make it an official law. It will expire if it's not voted on, or rejected. It's been called "decreto Pisanu," from the name of the signing Minister, since late August.

      Next time, as an Italian, try reading papers [corriere.it] or web daily [punto-informatico.it] Punto [punto-informatico.it] Informatico [punto-informatico.it]. The third story is about cafés being raided and closed in Florence for several criminal offences. Some of them have been shut down for 5 days because of violations of "decreto Pisanu," as further proof that this idiotic law is already being enacted.

      What is, to me, the worst part has not been mentioned in the /. blurb. The wording in the law, apparently, makes ID recording mandatory for public WiFi access, as well, independent of the nature of the service - be it paid for, free of charge/public, or a city-wide municipal network. This may very well kill the stuttering penetration of commercial and public WiFi in Italy. Who's going to pay for the guy in charge of checking the validity of, and registering ID for people who want to connect to the library's free wireless network? Or just think of the lines to get registered for the airport's network...

      • You make a very interesting point about the way governments worked. When lobbyists and other well-connected individuals, usually with significant wealth, begin leaning on the politicians the politicians will listen. If the hardline companies want to stifle competition from wireless access they don't need to confront the emerging industry directly. Instead they make the implementation so unmanageable that the effort isn't worth the gain. The wireless industry, unless it dies out entirely, will seek ways

        • I agree that if this or similar laws are effectively enacted and enforced, we're pretty much done for.

          However, I'm afraid there's not necessarily a need for further trusted computing initiatives in order for the big telcos to make a buck out of this legislation. Right now in Italy and many other places, if you sign up for regular Internet service, you're asked to identify yourself for billing purposes. Throw in a little bit more data at sign up, such as the serial number of your ID card, passport or drive

          • Sounds like a perfect opportunity to increase the scope and authority of the police. Not only will you as the user be subjected to police inquiry while sipping an espressor but the burden of proof will be on you to produce papers verifying that you do indeed subscribe to this particular wireless broadband provider.

            "Where are your papers?" now has a whole new meaning.
      • Normally, it's kind of useless to complain about "I submitted it first", but... this was months ago. I don't think sites like reddit are perfect, but I notice that I get a lot of the same items faster than on slashdot.
    • Don't worry, the same here; I get my country's tech news from Slashdot as well.

      Then again, I get all my news from Slashdot, so there.

    • When I was backpacking through Italy this summer I was suprised to find the aformentioned policies (or parts of them) in place and in use in every internet cafe I stopped in. They always checked my ID and some even asked me to see my passport. Now, it wasnt the most pleasant feeling when somebody asked you to get your passport out to check your email.. but I always got the same reply: "I know, sorry... New regulations.."

      I guess the data retention aspect of this law would be new, but otherwise much of it

  • Yay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Spit ( 23158 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:40AM (#14232694)
    Three cheers for fake ID!

  • OK (Score:5, Funny)

    by giorgiofr ( 887762 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:44AM (#14232701)
    Luckily I am well-versed in the ancient art of JAPing over Tor, and I have studied the lost techniques of Knoppix burning.

  • Bad idea: it's the wrong way to enforce ID (Score:3, Insightful)

    by joelparker ( 586428 ) <joel@school.net> on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:48AM (#14232711) Homepage
    Obviously this is bad for freedom... worse, it's the wrong way to enforce ID. The Italian way is too much of a burden on small business owners and too easy for users to circumvent.

    If the cops really think that ID should be required, why aren't they stepping up and doing something more effective, such as a computer login or swipecard?

    • why aren't they stepping up and doing something more effective, such as a computer login or swipecard?

      Well it may come to that. When on vacation in Spain and Austria I noticed a variety of billing methods for net labs. The most common was 'quisiera usar Internet' - 'bien, usa ordenador numero ocho'. and settle payment when you left. (Sorry if my Spanish is wrong!) Some did make you pay upfront for half hour blocks with a temporary login and password. (Printed out on a POS docket). Others were timed with a

  • And WLAN APs? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sploxx ( 622853 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:50AM (#14232715)
    Good luck securing all the open wireless access points by law enforcement.

    But probably the ones with open WLANs wil be 'guilty' of anything accused. Someone simply *has* to go to jail!
    • That's kind of self-limiting: if you leave you wireless network unprotected and people use it for doing something illegal, you are likely going to be in trouble in some form. First, the presumption will be that you are the criminal. Even if you can prove that it wasn't you, you may still be help responsible for your lack of security. And I doubt this is going to be any different in the US or Italy; it's only that in Italy, this sort of thing requires a law, while in the US, it can be introduced through c
      • if you leave you wireless network unprotected and people use it for doing something illegal, you are likely going to be in trouble in some form

        The law needs to pass the Corkey test. What happens when someone of a low IQ decides to follow the instructions of "plug and play". I would suspect the manufacturers to be more responsible that the end user. For example, what about when grandma decides to take home a wireless router and she does not secure it and someone uses it for an illegal purpose? How will the

        • What happens when someone of a low IQ decides to follow the instructions of "plug and play". I would suspect the manufacturers to be more responsible that the end user. For example, what about when grandma decides to take home a wireless router and she does not secure it and someone uses it for an illegal purpose?

          Someone may be able to get away with that defense once or twice; after that, manufacturers will put big warning labels in their manuals and make the defaults more secure (that's already happening,
          • Intent is not necessary; carelessness that harms others is sufficient

            If they could actually prove that someone had been harmed by an anonymous use of a wifi point, that would be interesting. But it's all just screaming paranoia. (Is it a Godwin if you mention Mussolini an Italian story?)

          • Someone may be able to get away with that defense once or twice; after that, manufacturers will put big warning labels in their manuals and make the defaults more secure (that's already happening, actually).

            And they get disabled because it is much easier to log on and have others logged on (as in guests or other people you'd like to be on) without it.

            Intent is not necessary; carelessness that harms others is sufficient for legal consequences and responsibility.

            Maybe the US is more liability-happy than most
            • Maybe the US is more liability-happy than most but here neglect only covers really stupid or dangerous acts, like leaving a well unsecured, poisionous chemicals around and the like.

              You can be quite certain that if someone attacks any kind of important server from your IP address, you will be in a lot of trouble. At that point, it becomes almost academic whether you eventually can get out of it in court.

              Their idea of "responsible" conflicts with my understanding of "fair use", "formatshifting", "timeshiftin
    • Good luck securing all the open wireless access points by law enforcement.

      Government might not be interested in those who lawfully use the internet. I suspect what government is trying to do is frustrate the terrorists/bad guys by taking away one more place they can do buisness. You know the bad detective movie sayings "Lets shake the branches and see what falls out of the tree". Or Tzu "If your enemy is angry, irritate them". What they are trying to do is make the enemy snap, and make a bad choice base

      • Government might not be interested in those who lawfully use the internet. I suspect what government is trying to do is frustrate the terrorists/bad guys by taking away one more place they can do buisness.

        Of course it is. Terrorists don't use the internet for tactical comms - they meet face to face in some mountain in Pakistan.

        For terrorism to work, there needs to be enough of them motivated. And so far in the USA, there have not been any since 9/11.

        Why fight after you've won? The Bush administration

  • This could have worked years ago (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mangu ( 126918 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:56AM (#14232725)
    Perhaps one or two virus authors could have been caught. Maybe, and then probably not. But today, with all those open wireless networks, the law is pointless. It only affects the poorest people, those who need email, or are trying to find a job online, but don't have a computer at home.
    • Perhaps one or two virus authors could have been caught. Maybe, and then probably not. But today, with all those open wireless networks, the law is pointless. It only affects the poorest people, those who need email, or are trying to find a job online, but don't have a computer at home.

      Will the next step be a law to ban open wireless networks, or a law to require the ISPs to log all the traffic period, and not just from public cybercafes?

      • Maybe, Maybe not. They still have plenty of means of anonymous distribution, so I guess if this law passed earlier, they'd just sneak it somewhere else. or get someone else to do it ('hey, run this for me'), or fake id, or whatever. Regardless, I'd rather live in a world where a few more virus authors roam free but so do I than a world where none of us are free.

  • Even Orwell would be shocked (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:56AM (#14232726)
    First off, I realy think the proposal of the EU minister would have
    merrited a /. article on its own.
    It's such a broad assault on the privacy of European citizens that I
    don't think there is anything comparable in European history, yet, for
    most people who only follow the mainstream press, it's an absolute
    non-story. There is close to no coverage at all.

    To spell it out again, information about all your telephone calls (that
    is, for example, who you called and when), all your email (that is whom
    did you write to and when) and all the websites you visited will be
    recorded and stored for at least 6 months and up to 24 months.

    As to who will be able to use this information, this is of course left
    very vague and surprise, surprise, the music industry is already
    lobbying to have access to this data.

    Really, this proposal that will probably make it through the parliament
    will change Europe in a very, very worrying way and nobody seems to be
    upset about it. It's frustrating and scary.

    P.S.:
    I just read on spiegel online (a german news site), that the Italian law
    leads to a lot of web cafes closing their door, because customers are
    not willing to take this bs.

    • It's such a broad assault on the privacy of European citizens that I don't think there is anything comparable in European history,

      Don't be stupid, of course there is, in Italian history [wikipedia.org] even.

      But of course this was bound to happen. As the people who went through the Second World War slowly die off, the lessons learned are forgotten and the same slide to tyranny, death and destruction will repeat. Only this time it will be nukes instead of firebombs...

      Oh well, it has been peacefull these past 60 years

    • Re:Even Orwell would be shocked (Score:4, Informative)

      by Björn ( 4836 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @12:08PM (#14233596)
      Not only will who and when you called be registered but also your geographical location, when using a mobile phone. And SMS traffic will also be registered.

      The latests news concerning the data retention proposal is that the Council approached the group leaders of the two party organizations, EPP and PSE and made a compromise. In all important aspects the accepted compromise is just what proponents of data retention want. One nasty aspect of this compromise is that Alexander Alvararo, a German liberal and formal representative of the European Parliament in this question, wasn't allowed to participate in the meeting. His comment; " they ripped us off". Also the compromise promptly gets rid off the amendments to limit the damage to human rights and privacy, that the LIBRE comity had been working on. What this means is that the it looks like the advocates of data retention will get 468 votes of 732.

      Oh, and data retention can be used against any crime on the European arrest warrant. This includes racism, corruption, file sharing, piracy, etc...

      • In addition (Score:3, Informative)

        by DMNT ( 754837 )
        The original propose was to save all the TCP/IP data, but was soon discarded as the cost of saving all the data was realized by non-techies. What's most stupid in this, this will not affect those who know their way around that, i.e. terrorists who know the law and how to avoid being listed.

        Now excuse me, I'll be installing Tor.

  • Same in France :-( (Score:5, Informative)

    by Exaton ( 523551 ) <exaton @ g m ail.com> on Sunday December 11, 2005 @07:59AM (#14232732)

    Alas ! That the same thing was voted in France a couple weeks ago...

    Bah, our Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy [wikipedia.org], is best buds with the Bush administration, so what can a guy do ? :-(

    • Bah, our Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, is best buds with the Bush administration, so what can a guy do ?

      Run the guy out on a rail? Given the open "freedom fries" animosity shown by Bush and the USA in general towards France, you'd think the French people would take Bush's bed-fellow and string him up. Sounds like he's coming off here as the abused wife that keeps on returning to her tormentor.

  • Italian bureacracy (Score:2, Informative)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 )
    I remember a few years back in the dial-up days trying to get net access in Italy, it took a whole lot of documents and bureaucracy, we had to get a friend who was a real resident to put it under his name. I don't think you can do anything in that country without atleast having some kind of passport or ID photocopied and stamped.

    • Re:Italian bureacracy (Score:5, Informative)

      by mbaciarello ( 800433 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @09:26AM (#14232926)

      I don't know what ISP you were trying to sign up for, or when, but at present they require a billing address and so-called "codice fiscale," fiscal code, which is a code constructed from your name, place and date of birth. It's a univocal identifier for every citizen, and is usually required for billing purposes.

      Sometimes citizenship/legal residence is (inadvertently?) required for even the most trivial tasks in many places. Try reloading a Cingular pre-paid phone over the phone: if your credit card's billing address is not in the US, it won't work. And the operators will helpfully suggest you get an American credit card to work around the problem...

  • Whenever I'm connected via wlan, I use openvpn tunnel for any transferred data.
    Do they really expect to be able to automatically capture everything, or are the cafe wlans offering internet access only through their proxy server?
    • Duh, now that I actually rtfa, it was about the public computers they kept in their cafe, not about their wlan
      Kinda makes sense to record the users, in case something gets broken etc.
      The stored photocopies of ID's sounds bit excessive though.

  • Terrorism must be winning (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rolfwind ( 528248 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @08:24AM (#14232791)
    It seems to have an out of proportion effect on our lives for the damage it currently causes. This is not to belittle the victims, but we are letting something that has miniscule effect on the populace as a whole CONTROL US.

    Or at least let the politicians control us through FUD. Any politician that utters the word "terrorism" along with a bill that they think "needs" to get passed to "protect" us should be voted out ASAP anyway.

    But imagine if nations like the US spent their kind of anti-terrorism money on, something basic, like national healthcare. Would that have saved or benefited more lives than "fighting the war on terrorism?"
    • if nations like the US spent their kind of anti-terrorism money on, something basic, like national healthcare. Would that have saved or benefited more lives than "fighting the war on terrorism?"

      Emmm, have you been paying ANY attention? 9-11 claimed the life of 3,000 innocent souls. The civilian death tool in Iraq is 30,000.

      The "War on Terror" is already in negative equity. Giving cigarettes out to school children would probably have less negative impact.

  • Give control of the internet to the UN! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11, 2005 @08:28AM (#14232799)
    Blaaargh! These damned Americans and their Big Brother.... oh.

  • Part of a coordinated assault on privacy... (Score:5, Informative)

    by pieterh ( 196118 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @08:31AM (#14232804) Homepage
    First, the "Big Brother" directive being forced through the EU which mandates logging of all end-points used in communications.

    Second, the elimination of anonymous access, via cybercafes and pre-paid phone cards. This closes the present loopholes in the implementation of Big Brother.

    Third, the creation of EU-wide databases that are accessible to police forces before criminal acts occur. Yes, this data will be abused, sold, stolen, leaked. It always happens.

    Forth, the creation of new types of "crime". See the French proposal to outlaw free software, proposals to criminalise patent infringement, etc.

    Fifth, the creation of EU juduicial and police structures to enforce these crimes. See EPO tribunals, EU arrest warrant, extradition for crimes like "piracy", etc.

    Interesting to note that all references to "terrorism" were removed from the compromise ammendments that will be voted on Wednesday. This wave of anti-privacy legislation has nothing to do with terrorism (that was just the stick) and everything to do with autocrats in business and in government that feel they have lost control of new technology and will do anything to regain it.

    The real targets of these laws are downloaders, tax evaders, petty and less petty crooks... it'd be justified if the EU was sinking in a sea of crime, but since crime rates have been falling year on year...

    Europe's privacy advocates are rightly worried. It is the sheer speed of the assault (all happening in a few months) that has left most of us staggered. No time to lobby, no time to mount a resistance, almost no time even for journalists to notice what's happening.

    Lastly, and most worryingly for EU citizens, is the way criminal law and new definitions of crime are being created by the unelected Council and Commission burocracy - these groups have basically coerced the European Parliament into accepting "compromises" or being left out of the legislative process completely.

    In other words... we cannot vote these laws away. There is no mechanism for appeal. There is no supreme court. There is no constitution. When French and Dutch voters threw out the consitution, they threw out a last chance for European democracy. If only they had known...
    • In other words... we cannot vote these laws away. There is no mechanism for appeal. There is no supreme court. There is no constitution. When French and Dutch voters threw out the consitution, they threw out a last chance for European democracy. If only they had known...

      The court system was never meant as an appeal court over law, at best it was meant to resolve inconsistencies between laws and other laws (like a constitution). I don't think the constitution would have done much good to prevent what is happ

    • Forth, the creation of new types of "crime". See the French proposal to outlaw free software, proposals to criminalise patent infringement, etc.

      Isn't that the one that declares that free DRM-circumvention software is still illegal?

  • No point in this... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chaffar ( 670874 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @08:32AM (#14232808)
    Well what's next? Swiping your ID card everytime you call from a public payphone ? If monitoring emails is seen as a way to curb terrorism (or so the argument goes), then knowing who is using a public payphone at what time will surely help us in stopping many other potential crime,, rapists, blackmailers, stalkers, will all have to find another way. But no such measure will ever be in place. Why? Because it's not about security, it's not about protecting us.

    It's about data mining, it's about control... they want to be able to have access to unlimited information at our expense. Right now governments are pushing their authority as far as they can, just to see how far they CAN go. And apparently they can do whatever the fsck they want.

    As a Frenchman, I had wished that Europe in general would remain a beacon of personal freedom while the U.S. ate away its people's freedom in the name of "freedom" (Patriot Act, anyone?). But unfortunately the reality of things is quite different.

  • Don't know about you folks, but to enter the library in C.U.N.Y. you had to show valid ID. That part of the "law" does not really worry me, since good terrorists will have fake Id in any case it won't hamper their activities that way. Those in country illegally for non-terror activities will be severly hampered, but that is another issue entirely. The real story is tracking your electronic communication. We know that if done right, this con help track those that are using the internet for subversive intente

  • Some background to this stupid law (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 11, 2005 @09:01AM (#14232863)
    This law has been around for at least one year, possibly more.

    It got passed after a terrorist group who killed two Italian senior civil servants (Marco Biagi in 2002 and Massimo d'Antona in 1999) used an internet cafe at the Rome main train station to send messages to Italian newspapers claiming responsibility for the assassinations.

    Generally, this law was ignored, partly because the terrorists mentioned above (the last survivors of the Red Brigades, a major communist group thoroughly defeated during the eighties) were quickly rounded up and arrested.

    But when it turned out that the Islamic terrorists responsible for the 2004 Atocha Station bombing in Spain (over 200 dead) also used internet cafe's to co-ordinate their actions, policemen started to go round internet cafe's threatening them with closure and prosecution if they did not keep records of the people visiting them.

    Needless to say, this law is completely useless. If you want to preserve your anonimity when in Italy, go to the smaller places. Most do not bother checking your ID card and have no CCTV, contrary to the big places (which are usually run by Telecom Italia). But make sure you have a Knoppix bootdisc because very few use any antivirus and their PC are full of malware.

    Sadly, my country is not famous for its respect of civil liberties. The state and the police often abuse their power and do not miss the opportunity offered by someone abusing the system to further extend their powers to intrude into people's privacy.

    And instead of protesting and ask for a more just society, people take the easy route and try to get around the law whenever possible. It's all screwed up.

  • Quite old and very stupid (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CaptainZapp ( 182233 ) * on Sunday December 11, 2005 @09:35AM (#14232962) Homepage
    That must have been law already in October, since I had to show ID in order to book a flight from my vacation. I think it's insanely stupid, extremely invasive and over all totally clueless. Bear with me

    After recording your information you get a plastic card (the chain of cafes in question is Internet Train). With this card I can surf away at any Internet Train in Italy. And how exactly does that thwart terrorism?

    For starters: I didn't try to read the magnetic stripe, which can be done with any 30$card reader, but I can't imagine that it's very hard to make sense of it and alter it appropriately. But I wouldn't even have to be technically savvy. I could just pay a junkie 20 Euros that he obtains such a card. The card can be lost or stolen and how exactly do you monitor such a vast amount of data?

    Italy is turning into a nation of fucking Fascists under Berlusconi and it ain't a pleasent sight.

  • Everybody's going off the rails and ranting about privacy, liberals, data collection, compromising rights, etc...

    Think about this for a second. So you want to go into a private business, rent computer time and an internet connection, conduct whatever behavior you want on their systems and then leave, totally anonymously, with no accountability for what you did on their systems?

    By the way, you are next of kin to the late Senator Mubumbo, and as your lawyer, I need your help transferring his estate of $1
    • >Think about this for a second.

      I have been thinking about this for many years.

      >So you want to go into a private business, rent computer time and an internet
      >connection, conduct whatever behavior you want on their systems and then leave, totally
      >anonymously,

      Yes, that is exactly what I want. And I let other do the same on my connection.

      >with no accountability for what you did on their systems?

      I am always responsible for what I do. That does not mean that I want everything I do recorded.

      I also w
  • I can see Congress passing a law to where you must present ID that conforms to the coming Real ID Act of 2005 before connecting to the Internet at a public conveyance. No more anonymous connections here in the USA such as going into libraries or places that offer free Internet.
  • Are they going to start taking ID if you go read a book while IN the library? I realize if you check it out they need to know who you are, in case you dont bring it back. But asking for ID up front is not right.( i have heard of a case where they went back and looked for fingerprints in a book that was not checked out by the person on trial, and used that as evidence of intent )

    Between taking ID, datamining on purchases, and cameras everywhere you look, the honest citizen has lost most of his right to priva
    • Believe it or not, they really don't care about your looking through the whole Penthouse archives. Terrorists aren't into naked women, you know...
  • They can keep as many records of me logging in/out as they want. But it is nothing to worry about.

    First of all, they would have to know that it is actually me sitting on the computer. I never register with any real data, anyway.

    Secondly, they would have to crack the encryption I am using. Using 256-bit encryption, there is no way that they can break in and see what I am actually transmitting/receiving. Even if they use a key logger, there are ways to deliver a message.

    Thirdly, I have nothing to hide. Even i

  • Every major technological advance (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) on Sunday December 11, 2005 @11:52AM (#14233511)
    will be subverted, in time and to varying degrees. The Internet is no exception.
  • Instead of the anti-terrorism potential, they should be marketing it a little simpler - users can create their own profiles and install their own applications without disturbing other sessions.

    On second thought, that's not really useful on Windows, is it?

  • ... and it appears that this law has had one significant effect:

    the internet cafes are almost all gone.

    Basically, compliance is enough of a burden that the small businesses who had internet access have decided to just get rid of it instead. I personally saw at least a dozen places that still had signs with "internet cafe" listed but no computers. And all of them had removed the machines within the last year.

    Hooray for unintended consequences!

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