Data retention stampede
In the aftermath of the London bombings, ignorance, panic and repression once again rear their ugly heads.
From the BBC:
[British] Home Secretary Charles Clarke says firms across Europe should be ordered to retain phone and e-mail records to help track down terrorists.
A meeting of the EU justice and home affairs council, called by Mr Clarke in the wake of the London bombings, will discuss the plan on Wednesday.[..]At the meeting Mr Clarke will present his European counterparts with a 10-point plan including proposing that records of all private telephone calls, text messages and e-mails be retained by telecommunications firms so they can be passed on to the police and security services if necessary.
EU security commissioner Franco Frattini told the BBC he believed there should be Europe-wide measures.
And from the ZDnet article:
The European Union is split over how to introduce a law requiring phone and Internet usage records to be stored to help fight terrorism in the wake of the London bombings, an EU official said on Monday.
The executive European Commission is drafting a proposal to harmonise the rules for storing telephone, mobile and email records across the 25-nation bloc but EU president the UK is promoting a separate initiative on the same issue.
This is not an entirely new development; the European Council quietly tabled a proposal pertaining to data retention in April 2004, immediately after the Madrid bombings. The European Parliament massively adopted the very critical report of Alexander Alvaro on the proposal, last June, but it has only an advisory role in these proceedings. Apparently, data retention was also on the agenda of the recent G8 meeting in Gleneagles.
Now, following the recent terrorist attacks on London, the british EU presidency is pushing for a parallel multilateral agreement that would allow a similar action to cut corners on the european democratic process.
Britain, supported by Ireland, France and Sweden, has led calls for EU governments to agree new rules among themselves, excluding the parliament and the EC, as London fears the two EU institutions could slow down decision-making.
Meaning, as they did with software patents…
And as we did with software patents, we can stop them in their tracks, by opposing them every step of the process, by educating european citizens on electronic liberties and privacy issues, by contacting our representatives and demanding that they refuse to adopt any legislation with the power to curb democratic freedoms on the false and costly pretext of security. Otherwise, at some point, we’ll be looking at a European Directive similar to the USA PATRIOT Act, and it’s mishappen and abortive stepbrother, the Domestic Security Enhancement Act.
(Technorati tag: data+retention, my del.icio.us tag: privacy+europe)
Update (22:00): Reuters.uk: ” Home Secretary Charles Clarke challenged the European Union on Wednesday to overcome civil liberties concerns and agree to new anti-terrorism measures such as the compulsory storage of phone and Internet usage records.[..]Clarke made clear to Parliament’s civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee that while he was willing to debate civil rights with lawmakers, he would press for a deal among EU governments by October on the plans to log phone data.“. AFP: ” With police expressing fears of further attacks in Britain, Clarke urged his EU counterparts to use the momentum from the London bombings to ensure the swift passage of the laws.“.
Way to go, Mr. Clarke; I guess these matters are too important to be settled within the european democratic process.
And, since we’re once again borrowing from the Americans…
I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the power of the few to riot on the labors of the many.
–Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1804
And of course, the classic:
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
– Benjamin Franklin
