Data Retention back on EU Agenda

Article published in Privacy International

Immediately after the bombings on July 7, 2005, the UK's National High Tech Crime Unit called out to all communications service providers to retain all existing communications information held at that moment in time.

This includes:

Contents of email servers
Email server logs
Radius or other IP address to user resolution logs
Pager, SMS and MMS Messages currently on the network’s platform
Content of voicemail platforms
Call data records (includes mobile, fixed line, international gateways & VoIP)
Subscriber records

As news organisations began following up on this story they found that on Wednesday the Home Secretary Charles Clarke will propose a renewed policy of retention at the European Council. This proposal will call for communications data to be kept between twelve months to three years.

This move is despite the fact that in the UK such a regime already exists. After the Anti-Terrorist Crime and Security Act of 2001, and the establishment of secondary regulations, all communications service providers through voluntary co-operation retain traffic data for a varying period of time. Now the UK is seeking to launder this policy through the EU so that it can then return to the UK with a re-written set of rules despite thorough negotiations with industry back in 2002.

After the Madrid Bombings in 2004, a similar policy was proposed but faced significant opposition within the European Commission and the European Parliament.

Links:

Data Protection- European Commission
Privacy International
NHTCU
UK Presidency of the EU