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Swiss ISPs Must Archive E-mail For 6 Months
the_danielsan writes: "I first thought this (this ain't yellow press) would be a joke, but apparently swiss ISPs are now enforced to monitor all outgoing mails up to a period of 6 month - at their own cost! sunrise, a larger ISP, speaks of 50,000 to 100,000 CHF (that's about 31,405 to 62,810 USD according to my currency calculator) to update their systems. heise Newsticker has the same story running (both German). I can't believe this." For non-German readers, babelfish does a decent job with these articles.
WTF? I mean, is this really possible? I'm quite shocked by the devaluation of democratic rights around the world.
In the US, though we're fond if whining about our government, we tend to be more on the free and chaotic side of the spectrum. Not all the way, of course, but at least on that side.
Europeans have been so accustomed to the idea of trading freedom for security, though, that they willingly allow these things to happen. It's just another day in the life for them.
Our country may not be as good as it could be, but thank God we're not socialists.
Got Rhinos?
Well, they do not want to archive the contents, just the header data.
I think you'll find that the Swiss tend to be
very supportive all the silly laws the government
passes. My favorite is that you must turn your
car off if you are sitting at a light for longer
than 30 seconds or so. They're not as fond of their
personal freedoms as we are in the states.
not read the article but what defines an ISP and at what level would the capture be?
I mean I don't use my ISP's mailserver directly as a relay I use my own SMTP server, do I become my own ISP? Or will my upstream provider be required to scan all of my port 25 ourgoing traffic too?
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Just pass the charges for implementing the system and for storing the data onto the users with a full explanation that they are paying to be in compliance with the legal provision.
They're the voters - let them taste a little of their government in action, let them feedback as they deem fit if they find the added "value" of this measure insufficient relative to its costing them.
Representative government in action!
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Your knowledge of international politics comes from a blurb in a CIA-funded reference that most school children find overly simplistic?
Got Rhinos?
This move seems similar in goal to Carnivore, except it shifts the burden to the poor ISPs who have to pay the costs. I question the chain of custody issues with any "evidence", although I'm ignorant of the Swiss legal system.
Reading the articles there doesn't seem to be enough detail on what e-mail is, so I will assume it's rfc822-style traffic. The obvious way to avoid this law would then be to not use that kind of message traffic. What an opportunity for one or more of the Swiss ISPs to change the landscape of network messaging.
It's time for the existing email infrastructure to wither and die since it's been overrun by spamming and virus delivery.
They *are* going to use this to track down and execute spammers, right? Oh please, oh please!
If you send something unencrypted via e-mail you should expect it to have about the same privacy as a post card. If you're shocked that a government entity is tracking your e-mail then you are very naive.
"God is dead." - Frederik Nietzsche
It's hard to convince regular users to encrypt their email. People don't realize what they are doing. But for those of us who understand the importance of encryption, we should pass the word around.
How do you define email?
'Electronic comunication system where messages are stored for later transmition to one or more recipiants'
Thats the best I can come up with, unforutnately it covers many more things than email, and doesn't
cover the case when email is a direct peer to peer operation.
In the UK we dream of only 6months retention, a UK ISP must keep a copy of the Network Traffic they carry for a period of not less than 7 years, just incase of investigation. Failure to do so is a criminal offense.
The Home Office seems to be dilligently ignorant of the fact that is actually impossible in practice to comply with this law and the directors of every UK ISP are breaking the law.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/ripact.htm
Here in Zürich, where I live, at 5pm in the afternoon I sit in the same traffic jams that I would be sitting in in any city in the world. No one switches off their engines at the traffic lights anymore. That way a waste of time anway and impossible to enforce.
The swiss political system provides for initiatives with referendums which are legally binding. Anyone can start one and it gets voted on if there are more than 100 000 votes (Switzerland is small). What that means is that all you need to do is start an initiative and collect signatures. If it gets through you do your best to inform the public that their privacy is in danger (there is always a rundown of the initiatives sent to voters but many don't bother to read them). If people are worried enough, out the window, the law goes. End of story.