INTERNET PROVIDERS SAY NO TO COMPULSORY RETENTION OF TRAFFIC DATA

Camaleonte — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 14:32:00 GMT

...Traffic data reveals a great deal about who we are and what we do and think...

Providers already have to be fully tappable, and since 1 September 2004 they have been required to supply criminal investigators on request with all kinds of information on customers.
The Justice Minister expects that name, address and account details of telephone and internet users will be requested a total of 900,000 times per year.

A further requirement will shortly be added: data on specific suspects will have to be frozen and retained for three months.

The fact that providers will soon have to listen in and systematically monitor the conduct of all internet users means that the internet is set to become an insecure means of communication, with the public being made unnecessarily fearful that every mouse click may lead to suspicion.

The complete Article: Click me to read XS4ALL article

An invasive tool that interferes with the private life of all 450 million people in the European Union

Camaleonte — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 16:58:00 GMT

XS4ALL together with European Digital Rights (EDRI), have launched an international petition today against the European data retention plans. Internet users from all European countries are urged to sign the protest. The petition is aimed at the European Commission and the members of the European Parliament.

The data retention proposal orders telephone companies and internet providers to retain the phone and e-mail records of their customers. The proposal to retain traffic data will reveal who has been calling and e-mailing whom, what websites people have visited and even where they were with their mobile phones. Telecommunications data retention is a policy that significantly expands the powers of surveillance as it is not only targetting suspected criminals or terrorists but all telecommunication users.

XS4ALL and EDRI argue that retention of telecommunication traffic data is an invasive tool that interferes with the private life of all 450 million people in the European Union. Secondly, the petition points out that data retention is illegal under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, because it is disproportionate. Thirdly, the petition explains that security gained from retention may be illusory, as traffic data may easily point to another user. Finally, the means through which this policy is being pursued are illegitimate as some member states who have failed to pass this policy through their own national Parliaments are now trying to push it through the EU instead in the name of harmonisation and international cooperation.

In the next two months, XS4ALL and EDRI hope to collect an impressive amount of signatures from all over Europe, to convince Commission and Parliament that data retention is no solution against terrorism and crime. Supporters are invited to help distribute information about this petition, by placing the banner on their sites or homepages and spread the news through mailinglists.

The petition is launched this thursday in the opening speech of the open-air hacker event What the Hack in the Netherlands.

The 5th edition of the largest Hackersfestival of Europe takes place in Liempde, Brabant, the Netherlands and is sponsored by XS4ALL.

European Digital Rights is an association of 17 privacy and civil rights organisations from 11 different countries in Europe.

XS4ALL and EDRI Internet petition against data retention:
http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com/

NO DATA RETENTION!!

INTERNET PROVIDERS SAY NO TO COMPULSORY RETENTION OF TRAFFIC DATA

An invasive tool that interferes with the private life of all 450 million people in the European Union