<nettime> EU Council agrees to Internet snooping proposals

[John Armitage <john.armitage@unn.ac.uk>]

All
Here is yet another reason for Sean to be cheerful ...

John
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Location: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/zdnetuk/news/story/0,,s2090196,00.htmlEU 

Council agrees to Internet snooping proposals
11:33 Thursday 28th June 2001

Graeme Wearden (mailroomuk@zdnet.com)

The proposal could see all voice and data traffic stored for up to seven
years, but its critics hope it will be blocked by the European Parliament

The Council of the European Union yesterday agreed a proposal
(http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,s2086599,00.html) to give individual
countries the power to force telecoms and other communications providers to
keep records of all voice and data communications of their citizens,
possibly for years.

If adopted, the changes would give police access to telephone, email and
Internet records going back up to seven years, although the length of time
the records would be kept has not yet been agreed. Furthermore, the
European Parliament is expected to reject the proposal, which faces strong
opposition from privacy advocates and many European politicians.

After what an EU press release described as "thorough debate", the council
agreed that the new directive on data protection and privacy in the
telecommunications sector would give member states the power to bring in
their own laws forcing network and services providers to retain traffic
data. Such information would be available to law enforcement agencies
Britain has been lobbying the EU Telecommunications Council to accept the
proposals, in the face of heavy criticism
(http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,s2090124,00.html). It claims they will
help in the fight against crime. According to the Daily Telegraph, British
officials at the EU have said that the changes will help the police to
detect child pornography, incitement to racism and money laundering on the
Net.

But the move is seen as a threat to civil liberties by, among others, the
EU data protection working party and Elizabeth France, the UK's Information
Commissioner (formerly the Data Protection Commissioner). The European
Commission and the European Parliament have also both criticised the
proposals.

Stefano Rodota, chairman of the EU Data Protection Commissioners Committee,
believes that the changes will break the protections laid down in the
European Convention of Human Rights.

"Systematic and preventive storage of EU citizens' communications and
related traffic data would undermine the fundamental rights to privacy,
data protection, freedom of expression, liberty and presumption of
innocence," Rodota warned recently in a letter he sent to the Council of
the European Union.

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