Hawaii police state? Government may track all website visits by residents

Thursday, January 26, 2012 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: Hawaii, internet, surveillance

(NaturalNews) It is becoming increasingly obvious, and highly embarrassing, that many members of the US Congress have absolutely no idea what the Constitution says, or how the justice system works. Rep. John Mizuno (D-Hawaii) recently introduced a bill that intends to keep a log of every website visited by every person using the internet in Hawaii in order to target internet harassment, in direct defiance of the Fourth Amendment.

HB 2288 provisions that all internet service providers will be required to retain "subscriber's information and internet destination history information" for all their customers. This includes personal internet protocol (IP) addresses of web surfers, domain names of the websites they visit, as well as all host names (http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/Bills/HB2288_.pdf).

The reason for the bill's introduction appears to be a personal one involving Rep. Kymberly Pine (R-Hawaii), whose former web designer created a website against her called "KymPineIsACrook.com." Rep. Pine allegedly ripped off Eric Ryan, the site's creator, which prompted him to expose the "true story of corruption and sleaze at the state capitol and city hall in 2011" (http://www.kympineisacrook.com/).

Making a website of this nature is perfectly legal, of course, but Rep. Pine says her email account was also hacked around the same time that KymPineIsACrook.com was launched. But rather than proceed to have the situation investigated normally within the justice system as it would be for anyone else, Rep. Pine apparently rallied her allies in Congress to construct unconstitutional legislation that targets all Hawaiians and renders them guilty until proven innocent.

This childish response to a personal attack that may or may not be valid demonstrates a severe lack of character among Rep. Pine and many members of Congress who, rather than abide by the same rules as everyone else, come up with reactionary "solutions" that serve their own self interests. In this case, HB 2288 appears to be nothing more than the product of Rep. Pine's temper tantrum over having been exposed for potential misconduct.

"This bill represents a radical violation of privacy and opens the door to rampant Fourth Amendment violations," said Daniel Leuck, chief executive of Ikayzo, a Honolulu-based software design boutique, to CNET.com. "Even forcing telephone companies to record everyone's conversations, which is unthinkable, would be less of an intrusion."

Adding insult to injury, Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) introduced a companion bill to HB 2288 in the Senate. SB 2530 contains the exact same language as HB 2288, and with the same apparent ill-motivations (http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2012/bills/SB2530_.HTM).

Sources for this article include:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57366443-281/hawaii-may-keep-track-of-all-web-sites-visited/