Hmm. My ISP's WWW counter logged 70 references to my wife's page on the NH wiretapping statute. Most such references include the referring URL, so I went and read Mark Rasch's article.

I wonder if the law can be interpreted to say that web page counters that record such information require the consent of the reader. On one hand, I see data that the reader never saw, on the other hand, the references are derived from the HTTP "conversation" between browser and ISP. On the "third" hand, it's well known that web servers track visitor's accesses to understand how a site is used and guide future development. It is "well known," isn't it? :-) Sigh.

One reference came from a HTTP proxy on the same floor as my office at work. That's completely immaterial, right? I wonder who that was.

If I write a privacy policy page and hang that off the home page, would anyone consider that adequate notice? No one who followed that link looked at any other page at my wife's site. In fact, there is a good chance several references were simply prefetches by people's browers and never viewed.

By the way, there is an curious exception to the wiretapping statute in NH. Our Constitution allows defendants "all proofs favorable to [their defense]." See if http://nhdcyf.info/taping.html you're interested in one application.

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