WASHINGTON -- After hearing how one man used the Web to find and stalk a woman he eventually killed, lawmakers on Tuesday considered making it illegal for Internet data companies to sell people's Social Security numbers without their permission.
Tim Remsburg, stepfather of 20-year-old murder victim Amy Boyer, said a former schoolmate of Boyer's in Nashua, N.H., bought her Social Security number on the Internet, then used it to locate and murder her before taking his own life.The murderer also kept a Web site journal addressed with Boyer's name documenting his murder and suicide plans for two years prior to the killing, Remsburg told the Senate subcommittee on Children and Families.
"Now we're never going to hear her laugh, her giggle, never going to hear her plans for the future," Remsburg said, blaming Internet providers and data businesses for selling "this young man, this murderer, information about our daughter, our family."
He told the subcommittee the government should make Internet providers monitor their sites for potentially dangerous content.
While acknowledging there are legitimate constitutional free speech concerns about regulation of the Internet, Sen. Chris Dodd D-Conn., said the government has a responsibility to protect people from criminals who use the Web.
"If I'm standing on the street corner saying, 'I'm going to blow up a school,' someone's going to do something about it," said Dodd. "There is a dark side to the Internet, and we should not let our exuberance for the new technology blind us to the dangers out there."
Dodd said that while children may understand computers, "they are years away from understanding the harsh realities of the adult world."
Diana Strickland, 17, of Opelika, Ala., told the Senate panel how she and a friend were lured away from home by a 48-year-old man she met in an Internet chat room. The man, later found to be a collector and distributor of child pornography, met the two girls, then 15, at a Wal-Mart and drove them to his Pennsylvania home where they stayed for four days before Strickland's friend called the police.
"You really need to have a high maturity level to say, 'Look, you shouldn't be sending me instant messages or contacting me through e-mail,' " said Strickland.
Diana's mother, Teresa Strickland, told the panel how she kept the computer in the kitchen and put filters on Internet access, though not to Web chat rooms, thinking the precautions would protect her daughter.
"If I'm in the kitchen 15 feet from her I think she's supervised," said Teresa Strickland. "Apparently not."
To address the issue of Social Security numbers, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said he would try to amend a Senate bill now under consideration for protecting government computers from hackers and the security of information in them.
Gregg said his amendment would require companies that gather and sell Social Security numbers to first notify the holder of the number and get permission from that person before passing it on.
"These practices may continue under the text of the amendment as long as banks and credit card companies gain the consent of their customers to sell this information," Gregg said.