WASHINGTON — It may sound like a plot device for a futuristic movie, but the federal government may not be far from forcing Internet service providers to keep copies of all e-mail exchanges in the interest of homeland security.


The White House denied a Washington Post report Thursday alleging that the Al Qaeda terrorist network is working on using online and stored data to disrupt the workings of power grids, air traffic towers, dams and other infrastructure. But a White House official did acknowledge that Al Qaeda has an interest in developing such abilities.



And it's that interest that has technology circles wondering if the federal government is going to follow the European Union's lead in passing legislation that would allow the government to mine data on customers saved by ISPs.

Last month, the European Union passed a resolution that would [red]require all ISPs to store for up to seven years e-mail message headers, Web-surfing histories, chat logs, pager records, phone and fax connections, passwords and more.[/red]

Already, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain have drafted laws that comply with the directive. Technology experts say the U.S. federal government may try to do the same thing using the vast law enforcement allowances provided under the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

"They drafted the Patriot Act to lower all of the thresholds for the invasion of privacy," said Gene Riccoboni, a New York-based Internet lawyer who said [red]he has found loopholes in the anti-terror legislation that could open up the possibility for an EU-style data retention provision.[/red]