According to Statewatch, a civil liberties group, the Council of
the EU is about to back the demands of EU law enforcement agencies
for full access to all telecommunications data to be written into
all Community legislation in the future, including the retention of
ISP traffic and other data for seven years or more. This view is
directly in contrast to that of Europe’s data protection and
information commissioners.
Statewatch says that six EU governments lead the opposition to
the erasure of traffic data - as required under current community
law: Belgium, Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain and the UK. It
refers to the "Council Conclusions" contained in a report of
ENFOPOL, an EU working group on interception issues, which say:
1. The obligation for operators to erase and
make traffic data anonymous "seriously obstructs" criminal
investigations;
2. It is of the "utmost importance" that
"access" be "guaranteed" for criminal investigations; and
3. It calls on the European Commission
to:
a) take "immediate action" to ensure that
law enforcement agencies now and "in the future" get access in
order to "investigate crimes where electronic communications
systems are or have been used";
b) the "action" should be "a review of the
provisions that oblige operators to erase traffic data or to make
them anonymous"
In short, observes Statewatch, existing EU laws on data
protection and privacy have to be reviewed to enable the retention
of traffic data for the investigation of crime. All future laws,
including the proposals currently being discussed on the protection
of privacy and computer-aided crime should ensure the retention of
data.
The latest ENFOPOL report is scheduled for adoption at the next
meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 28th-29th May,
together with a Resolution emphasising the great importance of
ensuring that the redefined "Requirements" are built into community
measures under the "first pillar". The adoption of the Conclusions,
if agreement can be reached on the text, has been "pencilled in"
for the meeting of the Telecommunications Council on 27 June - at
the same meeting where the Council will adopt a "common position"
on the new data protection and privacy Directive.
The Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) notes that
the UK’s e-Minister has repeatedly denied any move to compelling
ISPs to retain traffic data, most recently last Friday. Caspar
Bowden, director of FIPR said:
"These proposals would allow fishing expeditions into the
on-line activity, browsing habits, and internet associations of
every citizen in the EU for up to seven years - without any warrant
or court order. The government has repeatedly denied supporting
these quasi-totalitarian measures, but it turns out they have been
secretly lobbying at European level all along. This is sheer
duplicity".
