This could happen in the U.S. as well. Our esteemed politicians and federal police have proposed a new law with exactly the same approach. I disclosed some of t

This could happen in the U.S. as well. Our esteemed politicians and federal police have proposed a new law with exactly the same approach. I disclosed some of these efforts in this 2012 article: "The FBI general counsel's office has drafted a proposed law...requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly. 'If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding'" http://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-we-need-wiretap-ready-web-sites-now/ http://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-we-need-wiretap-ready-web-sites... Here's another article from 2006 talking about Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colorado). She had originally proposed legislation imposing data retention requirements on ISPs, but then wanted to extend it to Facebook, Xanga, MySpace, etc. (to be fair, Rs have made similar proposals): http://news.cnet.com/Congress-targets-social-networking-sites/2100-1028_3-6089574.html http://news.cnet.com/Congress-targets-social-networking-site... I can't easily find the link to another piece I wrote, but DOJ/FBI reps have also talked about including photo-sharing sites. This is in addition to the FBI wanting to force ISPs to keep track of every web site that customers visit (not just IPs assigned): http://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-wants-records-kept-of-web-sites-visited/ http://www.cnet.com/news/fbi-wants-records-kept-of-web-sites... So far these proposals have not become law, meaning that the types of companies well-represented here on HN don't have to keep records of their users' activities for future police access. I've been critical of AT&T/VZ/Comcast/etc. over surveillance here before, but I'll give them credit for this: Those of us working on social/email/etc. startups aren't targeted by all these regulations today because of ISPs' defensive DC efforts over many years. They're doing it because of self-interest, true, but the spillover effect is real.