Austrian data retention bill clears lower house of parliament
The Austrian government has passed a controversial law which endorses
the storage of information relating to private phone calls and emails.
Opponents say the legislation violates the EU human rights charter.
After years of dragging its heels on the 2006 EU Data Retention
Directive, Brussels recently warned Vienna to implement the law or face
the prospect of infringement proceedings.
On Thursday, the lower house of the Austrian parliament bowed to the
pressure, and it is widely expected that the upper house will soon
rubber stamp the measure to put it into law.
Under the European Commission guideline, which was adopted in 2006 in
response to terrorist bombings in Madrid and London, private telephone
and email data pertaining to destination, date, time and duration of
communications, will be stored for six months.
The information will be available for investigators and public
prosecutors to access if needed to lend weight to criminal proceedings.
But critics argue that the law is too loosely knit and that it opens the
way for misuse.
Peter Krammer of Gegenvds.org ("Against data retention"), an Austrian
organization which opposes data retention, told the Deutsche Welle that
he was "very concerned" about the implications of the EU guidelines for
his country.
"The risk is that the data retained will not only be used for finding
terrorists and other such strong crimes, but will be used against
normal people," he said. "We will soon be in a scenario like Orwell's
1984."
Troubling future
 The directive scrutinizes e-mail, phone calls, and nearly all digital communication
Besides being a violation of privacy, Krammer says the law could also
lead to a lot of two-plus-two-equals-six assumptions, with citizens
being wrongly implicated in crimes they did not commit.
Although the Austrian government proposed a law for the
implementation of the European directive back in 2007, it was postponed
following widespread resistance from across Austrian society. As far as
Krammer is concerned, that has not abated.
"Everybody who understands what data retention does, and the
potential risks involved is very concerned about the future of Austria,"
he said.
Austria is one of five member states that Cecilia Malmström, European
commissioner for home affairs said would face action if they did not
implement the law. The others are Sweden, the Czech Republic, Romania
and Germany. In the case of the latter three, domestic laws upholding
the directive were put in place but subsequently overturned by
constitutional courts.
Under review
 Cecilia Malmström, the EU commissioner for home affairs, had been upset at Austria
Earlier this month the European Commission said it would review the
directive and consider more "stringent regulation" of storage in order
to further minimize the risk of data security breaches.
"Our evaluation shows the importance of stored telecommunications
data for criminal justice systems and for law enforcement. But the
evaluation report also identifies serious shortcomings. We need a more
proportionate, common approach across the E.U. to this issue," Cecilia
Malmström said in a statement.
Joe McNamee, advocacy co-coordinator with European Digital Rights
(EDRI) noted the irony in Brussels talking about infringement
proceedings while simultaneously agreeing to a review. He told Deutsche
Welle in an e-mail that Vienna had been coerced into passing the law by
the European Commission.
"The actions of the Austrian government up until now clearly
demonstrate that it believes that data retention is not necessary, and
is therefore illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights," he
wrote. "It is profoundly worrying to see the European Commission
pressuring a sovereign state into breaking the law in this way."
No great gains
 The directive is designed to help reduce terrorism, even though a German study says it has a neglible effect
A report published by German legal experts earlier this week said it
would be impossible to rephrase the directive in order to make it
compatible with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Furthermore, the
Bundestag Working Group report said data retention had not been proved
as an effective way of fighting crime.
"This marginal increase in the clearance rate by 0.006 percent could
raise doubts about whether the provisions in their current form would
stand their ground under a proportionality review," the report said.
Before the Austrian law can come into effect, it has to pass through
the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament. Although that is unlikely
to be a problem, opponents are not ready to give up the fight and are
already preparing to take their case to the Austrian constitutional
court.
Author: Tamsin Walker
Editor: Cyrus Farivar
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15039454,00.html
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