EDRI - Telecommunication data retention

Serbian Telecom Agency publishes Internet traffic interception rules

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:33:45 +0100

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Serbia's Republic Agency for Telecommunications (RATEL) published on 21 July 2008 a document of Instructions for Technical Requirements for Subsystems, Devices, Hardware and Installation of Internet Networks. The document explains the technical requirements for authorized monitoring of some telecom services and provides a list of obligations for the telecom operators.

According with the present text, the ISPs will have to let the police access their databases, including users' e-mail content or browsing history. This regulation seems to be the Serbian version of the data retention directive, since the scope is defined as fighting cyber crime and terrorism.

Danica Radovanovic explains on his blog at GlobalVoices what are the present

Macedonia: Public outcry over new legislation for preventive surveillance

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:32:38 +0100

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Several leading human rights NGOs from Macedonia issued a reaction to the Parliament and the Government of Republic of Macedonia on 24 June 2008, regarding the recent changes in the Law on Criminal Procedure and the Law on Interception of Communications, allowing special investigative measures (such as surveillance).

The Foundation Open Society Institute - Macedonia, the Association for Criminal Justice and Criminology of Macedonia and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia expressed deep concern because of the fast-track adoption of changes in the legislation "without no expert discussion whatsoever." These changes can turn Macedonia from a state based

Irish Human Rights Commission added to data retention challenge

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:54:41 +0100

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The High Court in Dublin has allowed the Irish Human Rights Commission to become a party to the data retention challenge being brought by Digital Rights Ireland. The Human Rights Commission, which is a state body, will be an amicus curiae (friend of the court) with the ability to make submissions about the fundamental rights implications of data retention. The Chief Executive of the Commission Éamonn Mac Aodha stated:

"This case raises important issues about the extent to which laws and measures governing the monitoring of one's private life by the State in pursuit of tackling crime possess sufficient human rights safeguards". Mr MacAodha continued "one of the priorities of the IHRC is to address

German Protests in over 30 cities against surveillance

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:57:55 +0100

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On 31 May 2008, privacy activists organized new rallies in more than 30 cities across Germany.

Following the November 2007 protests under the motto "Freedom not Fear"("Freiheit statt Angst"), thousands of citizens participated in this year street actions.

Numerous demonstrations, rallies, information events, as well as workshops and art performances sent clear signals to protect constitutional rights and limit the rampant proliferation of surveillance.

The rallies had the goal of demonstrating to the ruling grand coalition, a decisive NO of citizens to the blanket collection and storage of data, as well as to the surveillance of all details of daily life. The activities were

ECJ first hearing on data retention case

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:55:32 +0100

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On 1 June 2008, the first hearing by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Ireland's action for the annulment of the directive on data retention took place in Luxembourg.

Ireland, later on joined by Slovakia, filed an action with ECJ against the European Council and Parliament in July 2006 for the annulment of Directive 2006/24/EC for data retention claiming an incorrect legal basis. The action has been largely supported by various bodies and private advocates ever since but despite the strong opposition, the European Parliament made a compromise and adopted the directive the 14 December 2007.

Unfortunately, the legal basis of the data retention directive is supported

Dutch Parliament lowers data retention term to 12 months

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:00:08 +0100

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The Dutch Parliament has lowered the data retention term in its implementation of the Data Retention directive to 12 months. The law has still to pass the Dutch Senate, which has been more critical of data retention in the last four years. A lot is still unclear about the law and many concerns, like the absence of evidence for the resulting interference with the right to private life and private communications, have not been adequately addressed yet. Still, the legislature will try to finalize the law before the summer break of the Parliament.

Interestingly, the three-party coalition forming the present Government was split into three camps, arguing for 6, 12 and 18 months

ICO worried about a UK Government-owned traffic data database

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:59:05 +0100

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The new Communications Data Bill proposed by the Home Office has met the opposition of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) which has shown concerns related to the proposals of building one Government-owned database with records of phone calls, email and Internet use in the UK.

In ICO's opinion, the action is not justified. "If the intention is to bring all mobile and internet records together under one system, this would give us serious concerns and may well be a step too far. We are not aware of any justification for the state to hold every UK citizen's phone and internet records. (...) We have real doubts that such a measure can be justified, or is proportionate or desirable. We have warned before that we are

Czech Parliament - close in implementing data retention directive

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:56:24 +0100

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Czech Parliament is close to approving the data retention implementation as an Act amending the Electronic Communications Act (127/2005 Coll.). Due to the early introduction of the data retention obligation in the text of the 2005 Act, the current amending draft law implementing the data retention directive is more specific.

EDRi-member IuRe intended to take the opportunity to amend the Act in order to respect privacy. IuRe prepared a set of amendments aiming to shorten the retention period to 6 months (currently one year), to include data that are subject to retention into the text of the Act (currently the data are specified only in a Minister regulation, so it can be modified without

Hungarian Data Retention Law - challenged at the Constitutional Court

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:54:06 +0100

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The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) has filed its complaint with the Constitutional Court requesting an ex post examination for unconstitutionality and the annulment of the data retention provisions of Act C of 2003 on electronic communications.

On 15 March 2008, the regulations implementing the 2006/24/EC Directive on data retention entered into force in Hungary. Act C of 2003 on electronic communications did not need much amendment since it already comprised numerous restrictive data retention provisions prior to the directive. The only changes of the amendments were the retention of Internet communications data and the elimination of the lax - but at least pre-defined - legal

UK Government will store all phone, Internet traffic data

Wed, 21 May 2008 19:38:09 +0100

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An announcement on 19 May 2008 by the UK government may herald the next step in governmental attempts to grab hold of traffic data. Despite the strongly negative reactions against the EU data retention directive, which governments must transpose into national law by 15 March 2009, the UK government (which has been a key driver of data retention) now demands even more.

Gordon Brown wants all traffic data - itemised phone bills, mobile phone records and Internet traffic logs - to be collected and stored in a central government database. The plan, which appeared in Monday's Times, has been criticised by the opposition as `more of a threat to our security than a support' while the privacy regulator said that

EDRi joins European NGOs in asking ECJ to annul data retention directive

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:10:30 +0100

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European Digital Rights (EDRi) has joined other 42 civil liberties NGOs and professional associations in signing the amicus curiae brief initiated by German NGO Working Group on Data Retention (Arbeitskreis Vorratsdatenspeicherung).

The action is destined to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in relation to the action started on 6 July 2006 - Ireland vs. Council of the European Union, European Parliament (Case C-301/06). The brief is asking ECJ to annul the EU directive on data retention pointing out that apart from the formal grounds put forward by Ireland, the directive is, most of all, illegal on material grounds.

According to the document, data retention violates the right to respect for

German Constitutional Court limits data retention law

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:59:01 +0000

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The Federal German Constitutional Court issued a preliminary decision on 19 March 2008 in the case supported by 34 000 people against the German implementation of the data retention directive. The preliminary ruling has considered that parts of the act are unconstitutional pending review.

The decision does not prohibit the electronic communication companies to gather the data, but limits its use, explaining that the retained data can be transferred to law enforcement authorities only in cases of serious crimes and with a judicial warrant.

The data shall be made available only in prosecuting or judging serious crime cases when other evidences are not accessible or are not enough. At

German constitutional challenge on Data Retention

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:16:15 +0000

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The complaint challenging the German data retention law in front of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has become the biggest constitutional case in German history with the submission of more than 34000 signatures backing up the action. The Working Group on Data Retention has also prepared an amicus curiae brief that it wants to submit to the European Court of Justice in the case Ireland vs. the Data Retention Directive and that can be signed by other NGOs.

In early February 2008, the German Federal Constitutional Court sent the application for the suspension of the data retention act to the Government, both chambers of the Parliament as well as the Governments of the Länder for

Romanian Govt adopts Data retention law, but calls it inefficient

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:57:21 +0000

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The Romanian Government adopted on 20 February 2008 the draft law on data retention, but despite the official press release that praises the new measure, several officials have complained about the lack of reality of the legal text.

The draft law was adopted by the Government at about one year after the Ministry of Information Technology and Communication (MCTI) presented the first draft, with no major changes in the text. This means that the Government has changed its previous intention to adopt the text as an Emergency Ordinance.

The data should be retained for one year. The obligation to retain the data is only for electronic communication operators, thus excluding information

Main data protection concerns with the EU policy developments in 2007

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:31:39 +0000

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The Lisbon Treaty was signed in December 2007. Notwithstanding the many critics raised by this Treaty, the text, when ratified by all member States, will bring two major improvements to the EU and its citizens. First, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union will become part of the Community acquis, including its articles 7 (Respect for private and family life) and 8 (Protection of personal data). Secondly, the Treaty will allow the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights and, hence, will give EU citizens the possibility of being protected against abuses of their human rights by EU institutions. This improvement would be much welcome, especially - though not exclusively - considering the