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EU Data Retention Implementation Deemed Unlawful By EU Authorities

Drew Wilson — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:00:18 +0000

Civil rights advocates have achieved a key victory in the fight against the European-wide data retention policy. A short report from EU authorities says, "European Data Protection Authorities find current implementation of data retention directive unlawful"

It's been a while since we've heard much about the EU data retention policy. Even the group against data retention, "Data Retention is no Solution" seemed to have stopped reporting on news as of 2007 if the Wiki is anything to go by. That doesn't mean the story is dead completely though. An announcement has been made (PDF) by EU authorities saying that the implementation of the data retention policy in Europe was unlawful. "The report that results from a joint inquiry carried out by the data protection authorities," the announcement says, "concludes that the obligation to retain all telecom and internet traffic data resulting from the directive is not applied correctly in the EU member states." "Most importantly," the announcement continues, "service providers were found to retain and hand over data in ways contrary to the provisions of the directive. The provisions of the data retention directive are not respected and the lack of available sensible statistics hinders the assessment of whether the directive has achieved its objectives. The European Data Protection Authorities therefore call on the European Commission to take into account the findings of the report when taking the decision on whether or not to amend or repeal the Directive." Katitza Rodriguez of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) calls this a "landmark announcement" and summarized the important findings:

* "Service providers were found to retain and hand over data in ways contrary to the provisions of the [data retention] directive." * "There are significant discrepancies regarding the retention periods, which vary from six months to up to ten years, which largely exceeds the allowed maximum of 24 months." * "More data are being retained than is allowed. The data retention directive provides a limited list of data to be retained, all relating to traffic data. The retention of data relating to the content of communication is explicitly prohibited. However, it appears from the inquiry that some of these data are nevertheless retained." * Regarding Internet traffic data: "Several service providers were found to retain URLs of websites, headers of e-mail messages as well as recipients of e-mail messages in "CC"- mode at the destination mail server. * Regarding phone traffic data: "it was established that not only the location of the caller is retained at the start of the call, but that his location is being monitored continuously." * "Member states have scarcely provided statistics on the use of data retained under the Directive, which limits the possibilities to verify the usefulness of data retention." * "The provisions of the data retention directive are not respected and the lack of available sensible statistics hinders the assessment of whether the directive has achieved its objectives."

European Data retention, or Directive 2006/24/EC, has been a hugely controversial policy that contains surveillance measures on internet users. According to the Wikipedia entry, "According to the directive, member states will have to store citizens' telecommunications data for six to 24 months stipulating a maximum time period. Under the directive the police and security agencies will be able to request access to details such as IP address and time of use of every email, phone call and text message sent or received. A request to access the information will be able only with a court order." Data retention was just one of many issues the Freedom, Not Fear campaigns targeted in their many European-wide protests. Where will things go from here? That's difficult to say. If the announcement is anything to go by, anything from amending or even repealing the EU data retention directive could occur. Clearly, there are problems with data retention in its current form, one of the most obvious is the implications of basic civil liberties. Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

Protests Organizing Over ‘Big Brother’ Stockholm Program

Drew Wilson — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:31:12 +0000

The issue should not go through silently, at least this was the sentiment of some people who are watching the formation of the Stockholm Program. The program is said to be “fortified” by the Heads of State and the government in December. What’s said to be at stake is the expansion of surveillance that can be accessed by the United States.

“Let it not be done in silence!” Said one Blog poster by the name of Henrik Alexandersson. He offered a list of what is currently at stake:

Enhanced cooperation between the EU and USA “in the field of freedom, security and justice”.
National anti-terrorist center in all EU states, who will report to Brussels.
All EU states must share their intelligence with all other member states.
More and more effective, “data-mining”.
Real time access to data on, for example, citizens’ travel, banking, mobile positions, internet use, and to fingerprint and portraits.
Streamlined monitoring by active collection of citizens’ electronic footprints.
EU standards of supervision.
EU harmonization to remove legal barriers to surveillance and interception.
Analysis at European level of material from national surveillance and mass interception.
An expanded EU bureaucracy for monitoring, interception and analysis, known as SITC.

“As Emma raised through non-aligned Sweden,” Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party commented on his blog, “it feels almost obscene to the Swedish capital city synonymous with a package whose purpose is to introduce a Bodström Samhälle beyond what was previously seen, and the elimination of legal civil rights protection for it.”

The Swedish Pirate Party website also notes that the protests will happen from July 15-17 at Humlegården, Stockholm.

While on the surface, it appears to just be “stopping the terrorists”, we should note that, in Europe, there’s been multiple attempts to use systems supposedly set in place to stop terrorism for the commercial interests of the copyright industry. Austrian newspapers wanted to use data retention to enforce copyright for one. For another, German publishers wanted to add RapidShare to the national blacklists. While it doesn’t appear that file-sharing related activities are even close to being in the Stockholm Program, it’s hard to deny that surveillance to enforce copyright is indirectly one step closer to becoming a reality thanks to this.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

British Copyright Term Extension Bill Delayed

Jorge Gonzalez — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:01:13 +0000

Copyright term extension made a brief appearance in the British House of Commons recently. A currently unidentified Member of Parliament objected to the bill when it was about to be discussed in the House, stopping it in its tracks.

Open Rights Group is reporting on this recent move, but is currently unable to identify the MP who objected to the reading of the bill. The only thing available is a streaming video which showed what happened. His face is visible at 4:56:57. He is sitting on the far left side of the screen sitting in the front row.

As it stands, the bill is currently going into its second reading. The delay means that the bill will go into its second reading next Friday.

The Open Rights Group says that the delay was the result of the people who wrote to their MP to tell them to not allow the copyright term extension to go through. They are currently requesting all those that have an interest in the copyright extension debate to write to their MP and tell them what the people think about it. They also are asking for European citizens to sign a petition to stop Copyright Term Extension European-wide.