The notion that an Internet user's every move could potentially be recorded will have a chilling effect on free speech and anonymous speech, he said. It will also have an impact on how freely individuals use the Internet to search for certain kinds of information, such as that related to specific diseases for instance, Morris said.

Any kind of mandatory data retention requirement will be akin to "dragnet surveillance by the government," said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington D.C.-based public policy research organization with libertarian leanings. "It will only look like it is not because it is will be a regulatory requirement for businesses and not ," he said.

"The fact that people's activity on the Internet is recorded at some point [by ISPs] does not mean the government needs to have access to that data," he said.

Jaikumar Vijayan covers data security and privacy issues, financial services security and e-voting for Computerworld. Follow Jaikumar on Twitter at or subscribe to . His e-mail address is .

in Computerworld's Privacy Topic Center.