Bill takes aim at anonymous hot spots, like coffee shops

03.03.2009
The local mom-and-pop cafe that serves open, anonymous Wi-Fi access along with coffee and muffins may soon be on the front lines of a war in Congress over privacy.

The , recently introduced by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, both Republicans from Texas, questions the wisdom of allowing anonymous access to the Internet, and it would require ISPs to log user activity -- and store that information for two years.

The bill's two sponsors say the measure is needed to improve the ability to identify sexual predators. The Internet's "limitless nature offers anonymity that has opened the door to criminals looking to harm innocent children," Cornyn said in a statement.

The legislation has been introduced in both the Senate () and in the House of Representatives (). Given Democratic control of both houses of Congress, the bill's fate is uncertain at best. But it touches on Internet and privacy issues that could come up in other contexts in coming years.

Although the measure focuses on sexual predators, data that is collected and stored could potentially be sought by anyone with a subpoena. It remains unclear, from this legislation, how extensive any data collection would be and whether it would affect, for instance, a . It is the type of legislation that could take regulators and courts years to sort out if it becomes law.

But the question of whether hot spots should offer anonymous access is one that Richard MacKinnon, president of the Austin Wireless City Project, an initiative of Austin Wireless Inc., deals with routinely. His firm, a nonprofit company in Texas, offers log-on and authentication services to government and private hot-spot operators. He believes Wi-Fi hot-spot services should be managed through an account that identifies the user and obligates him comply with to terms of service.