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Europol Describes Data Retention Desires
freakyboff writes "Found this on cryptome.org - It's a confidential document from Europol, basically a wish list of all data that they would like people to keep. Many things that violate peoples privacy are in the minimum requirements, such as caller line identification and assigned IP for dial-up Internet access; e-mail and ftp server logs; and companies running web servers should keep information on what information users put on their servers." Statewatch is a good source for more information. I find it odd that Europe is moving from a position of protecting a great deal of data with fairly strong laws to requiring that telecommunications companies store data on their customers for as long as seven years so that law enforcement can go data-mining - skipping the intermediate step of making it optional.
...sorry to say it, but privacy after September 11 no longer exists. The government needs to be able to monitor people to make sure that they are not engaging in criminal acts. If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear. While I strongly feel that there needs to be government monitoring of the masses, I feel that it is the wrong thing to start at. First we should me most concerned about the private ownership of firearms. Current gun laws need to be enforced with the harshest penalties for offenses. The NFA and assualt weapons ban was a good start, but now is the time to ban the private ownership of guns and outlaw sales of items related to their use and technical discussions on their operation and construction. This is simply not the environment for guns. We need to be as politically correct as possible.
Seriously, what the hell are these governments up to? Seems to me you'd have to be pretty afraid of something to mandate surveilence on the scale of what's going on in Europe these days, and last time I checked the climate wasn't right for a revolution (not enough poverty!).
So, what's going on in Europe?
Hexayurt - open source refugee shelter,