EU data protection authority condemns data retention directive
The European Data Protection Supervisor has issued an opinion denouncing
the 2006 directive, which required six month storage of all telecom and
Internet data as a tactic for law enforcement against terrorism.
The European Union's supervisory authority for data protection
has declared that the EU's data retention directive does not adequately
meet privacy and data protection requirements.
On Tuesday, the office of the European Data Protection Supervisor
(EDPS) issued an opinion saying that the 2006 directive, which requires
all Internet providers, telecom firms and mobile phone companies to
store extensive traffic and location data for six months has "failed to
meet its main purpose," and that "the necessity of data retention as
provided for in the Data Retention Directive has not been sufficiently
demonstrated."
 Malte Spitz, a member of the German parliament, applauded the EDPS' opinion"The
EDPS calls upon the Commission to consider seriously all options in the
impact assessment including the possibility of repealing the Directive,
either per se or combined with a proposal for an alternative, more
targeted EU measure," wrote Peter Hustinx, the EDPS' head official, in
the 16-page opinion.
Privacy and Internet advocates across Europe have spoken out
repeatedly against the directive. Most recently, earlier this year,
German parliamentarian Malte Spitz revealed his own six months' of
mobile phone calling and tracking data in a data visualization project
in collaboration with the German newspaper Die Zeit.
"The Data Retention Directive is cutting down fundamental rights of
each individual," Spitz wrote in an e-mail sent to Deutsche Welle.
"Privacy in the digital sphere - in a situation with permanent control
and surveillance - is no longer possible. Therefore the only consequence
can be, to withdraw this directive and stop data retention in Europe.
All scientific studies are showing that there is no need for such an
intensive interference with fundamental rights."
A response to terrorist attacks
The 2006 directive was created in the wake of terrorist attacks in
London and Madrid, and were designed to give European law enforcement
easy access to all telecommunications data, including who, when and
where a call was made, and any relevant GPS location information.
Nearly all EU member states have created laws to comply with the
directive - most recently, Austria, whose data retention bill passed its
lower house of parliament in late April.
 Cecilia Malmström may punish countries - like Germany - that don't adopt the directiveSeveral
weeks ago, Cecilia Malmström, European commissioner for home affairs
said that five countries, including Austria, would face legal 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 in
their respective countries.
"Our evaluation shows the importance of stored telecommunications
data for criminal justice systems and for law enforcement," Malmström
said in a statement last month. "But the evaluation report also
identifies serious shortcomings. We need a more proportionate, common
approach across the E.U. to this issue."
Author: Cyrus Farivar
Editor: Mark Hallam
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15120172,00.html
| 
