[Chapter-delegates] Metadata collection comes under fire in new UN anti-surveillance draft resolution

[Halbersztadt Jozef (jothal)]

Note please

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/document/2014/10/15/un-report-human-rights-terrorism/

point 18: "Shortly put, it is incompatible with existing concepts of
privacy for States to collect all communications or metadata all the
time indiscriminately."

One can spot at least 10 other references to metadata in the document
by UN special rapporteur on protection of human rights while
countering terrorism


Jozef Halbersztadt

-- 
'JotHal' jozef [dot] halbersztadt [at] gmail [dot] com
Internet Society Poland http://www.isoc.org.pl


On 11 November 2014 01:21, Narelle Clark <narelle at isoc-au.org.au> wrote:
> [Call me cynical but I have to wonder if this one will get up. Note
> links included in the online version… N]
>
>
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> Metadata collection comes under fire in new UN anti-surveillance draft
> resolution
>
> https://gigaom.com/2014/11/07/metadata-collection-comes-under-fire-in-new-un-anti-surveillance-draft-resolution/
>
> Summary:
> The draft proposal would make data retention laws taboo. As with the
> earlier anti-surveillance resolution it builds upon, this one comes from
> Brazil and Germany.
>
>
> Germany and Brazil have drafted a new version of an anti-surveillance
> resolution that the United Nations adopted late last year, this time
> describing the collection of metadata as a "highly intrusive act."
>
> The earlier resolution was also the product of German and Brazilian anger
> over the mass surveillance revelations of NSA leaker Edward Snowden (well,
> specifically their anger at their leaders being personally spied upon, but
> we'll take righteous outrage where we can find it).
>
> However, while it described the monitoring and collection of
> communications and personal data as a threat to human rights, it didn't
> talk about metadata - the logs of who contacted whom and when, or which
> webpages people visit, as opposed to the contents of those communications
> and webpages. These details also paint a vivid picture of a person's
> activities and networks.
>
> According to a Thursday Reuters report, the new draft says that arbitrary
> surveillance and collection of metadata "violate the right to privacy and
> can interfere with the freedom of expression and may contradict the tenets
> of a democratic society, especially when undertaken on a mass scale."
>
> Since the UN adopted the first resolution just before Christmas 2013,
> there have been not one but two reports from high-level officials that
> have detailed and condemned modern mass surveillance practices. The first
> came in July this year from human rights high commissioner Navi Pillay,
> who said data retention laws were disproportionate and "an interference
> with privacy whether or not those data are subsequently consulted or
> used."
>
> Data retention laws - found in countries such as the U.K. and soon
> Australia too - force communications providers such as ISPs to store
> metadata for a fixed period so it can be queried by law enforcement and
> intelligence services.
>
> In October, the UN's counter-terrorism and human rights special
> rapporteur, Ben Emmerson, issued another report that attacked many aspects
> of international mass surveillance, but specifically noted that "it is
> incompatible with existing concepts of privacy for states to collect all
> communications or metadata all the time indiscriminately."
>
> Brazil does not have a mandatory data retention law. The European Union
> did have one but Germany only implemented it between 2008 and 2010, before
> its constitutional court struck it down for violating the right to secrecy
> of correspondence. The EU's highest court struck down the wider law in
> April this year for violating fundamental rights, but the U.K. - which
> uses data retention to spy on journalists and their sources, among other
> things - not only maintained but expanded its metadata collection
> practices.
>
> The Reuters piece quoted Germany's UN ambassador, Harald Braun, as saying
> the new draft resolution would "help pave the way towards better
> protection standards." Apart from adding arbitrary metadata collection to
> the naughty list, it also urges countries to give people an effective
> legal remedy when their privacy has been violated by individual or mass
> surveillance.
>
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>
> --
>
>
>
> Narelle Clark
> Immediate Past President and Board Member
> Internet Society of Australia
> ph: 0412 297 043
> int ph: +61 412 297 043
> narelle at isoc-au.org.au
> www.isoc-au.org.au
> The Internet is for Everyone!
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