EU Still Looking at Mandatory Data Retention

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on a previous Slashdot article, European civil rights advocacy group Statewatch is detecting more rumbles of a possible weakening of privacy rights in the EU. The European council has been testing the waters for a new policy mandating retention of communications "traffic data" by all member states. The previous policy (adopted May 30) merely allowed an exception to EU privacy law for member states who wished to retain such data. Under the leaked draft proposal, law enforcement is to be allowed access to "traffic data" (identifying source, destination, time, etc.), which is similar to current US law. However, much worse is the requirement that telco providers retain such data for 12-24 months. Text of the draft framework decision is available. Also analysis by Statewatch. Backup link (in case of Slashdot effect)."

Comments

"if all our data was encrypted"

[oliverthered]

You would have to re-write all the network protocols (IP/TCPIP etc...) with encryption.

If you went to a kiddie porn site they could find out from your network traffic and get a search warrant.

If you were frequently on a chat room the same time as xx who was later found dead they'd be round the next morning.

If you were connecting to predominantly Jewish sites then the secret police would be round and take you away.