Internet Archive & the FBI

I wrote about the Internet Archive back in February after returning from the Code4Lib conference.  Since then I have been checking out the site to see all of the awesome information it had available.  Yesterday I found out that the FBI was targeting the Internet Archive for information about one or more of its visitors. 

This from LISNews:

On November 26, 2007, the FBI served a National Security Letter (.pdf) on the Internet Archive's founder Brewster Kahle, asking for records about one of the library's registered users, asking for the user's name, address and activity on the site.

Like many libraries, the Internet Archive was unable to provide the information requested because it keeps all browsing information anonymous.

This from DownloadSquad:

Seeing that the Internet Archive archives public information, that anonymous browsing is allowed, and all that's required to sign up for an account is an email address, username and password (Kahle says IP addresses aren't logged) it doesn't seem as though the FBI will really find much helpful information. They will find a whole lot of Grateful Dead recordings, if that's any consolation.

The original report from Wired can be found here.

This just brings home the issues of privacy we're facing in the library and digital world.  If we continue to digitize our content - new laws are bound to pop up trying to make libraries keep more personal information ... this is just the beginning.