[Chapter-delegates] Giant database plan 'Orwellian'

[Patrick Vande Walle]

I think some background is needed here. The Beeb article draws a
unnecessary dark picture by forgetting to mention that all this data
retention is also regulated by other directives regarding privacy of
personal data, which are considered the most stringent ones in the world.

As Veni mentions, the UK is only transposing an EU directive. The
directive itself harmonizes an,d updates what member states have been
doing for years. Even before the Internet became a major communication
tool, telephone call listings were used in support of police
investigations.

We are fortunate enough in Europe to have democratic governments under
permanent scrunity from their parliaments. So I think we are pretty safe
that an Orwerllian plan could not be deployed unbeknownst of anyone.  I
would point out that countries who do -or previously did- large scale
monitoring of their population usually do not even bother passing laws
to allow that.

Patrick

Veni Markovski wrote, On 17/10/08 18:48:
> These requirements are part of EU Directive 24 / 2006, so I don't see
> anything to worry about. Yes, they could store the data could have been
> 6 months (the minimum), or 24 (max). PGP will not help, if you are
> committing a crime :)
> 
> veni
> 
> At 03:45 AM 10/18/2008  +1200, Franck Martin wrote:
>> Time to use PGP and IPSec
>>
>> This link came up in the IGC mailing list... Posted here for discussion.
>>
>> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7671046.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7671046.stm
>>
>>
>> Excerpts from this UK news:
>>
>> Details of the times, dates, duration and locations of mobile phone
>> calls, numbers called, website visited and addresses e-mailed are
>> already stored by telecoms companies for 12 months under a voluntary
>> agreement.
>>
>> The data can be accessed by the police and security services on
>> request - but the government plans to take control of the process in
>> order to comply with an EU directive and make it easier for
>> investigators to do their job.
>>
>> Information will be kept for two years by law and may be held
>> centrally on a searchable database.
> 
> 
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-- 
Patrick Vande Walle
Check my blog: http://patrick.vande-walle.eu