EU Moves Forward with Data Retention

KokoBonobo writes " euobserver.com reports on controversial proposals to require EU service operators to retain data about telephone calls and e-mails as part of an overall fight against crime and terrorism. The retained data would not only consist of logs, but of entire conversations and contents of the e-mails and SMS messages. This document from the European Commission's Information Society goes into further detail."

Comments

Even Encryption won't help in the UK

[amigoro]

Since 1998, the police have the right to demand your encryption keys. Here's an old article about that.

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Re:Even Encryption won't help in the UK

[julesh]

Yeah, and according to the law, unless you can _prove_ you've forgotten it when there's _reasonable evidence to suggest_ that you know it, you're still going to go to prison.

Re:Even Encryption won't help in the UK

[julesh]

All it takes is one high court case, observed by our sensationalistic media, and that law will be consigned to the gutter.

The law includes secrecy provisions. Anyone charged under it will have their hearing in a closed session, and are strictly prohibited (penalty of 5 years imprisonment) from informing anyone other than their lawyer, so media coverage seems unlikely.

(4) A person who makes a disclosure to any other person of anything that he is required by a section 49 notice to keep secret shall be guilty of an offence and liable-

(a) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to a fine, or to both;

(b) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or to both.

Re:Encrypt your data/files

[jargonCCNA]

I think you missed the point. Encryption of your local files is a moot point if the data being transmitted is what's being retained.

That's not to say that encrypting your files isn't a good idea, just irrelevant in this case. Use of PGP/GPG for email, however.. in this case, is a bloody well fantastic idea. If everyone you communicate with has a key pair, you just have to remember to encrypt (and, if you aren't completely braindead, sign) everything you send and you'll have one less things to worry about. Keeping your web traffic under wraps might be a little more difficult.

I just need to find a cheapass CA (or track down the requisite software to do it myself) and I'd be happy as a clam. Of course, the challenge would be convincing everyone I know to start using it, as well. Although, at least that way I could make a certificate for my own servers so that, when I eventually do get my own server up and running, I can keep all traffic using https.

Re:Tools

[Apathetic1]

I've showed half a dozen people how easy it was to use GPG with the Thunderbird Enigmail extension and they've never looked back. Many people are ignorant of the alternatives rather than simply being lazy.

Re:Tools - But Even Then...

[ControlFreal]

In The Netherlands (and also the UK), a person can be forced to assist the authorities to decrypt information (i.e. supplying them with the key). If you refuse to cooperate, you could face a hefty fine, or be put in prison (depending on whether the police, or the intelligence services give the order).

The only alternative seems to be anonymous multi-hop networks that use onion routing; in those cases, you cannot cooperate (when it's not your own communication), since you don't have the key. And on top: purely from network traffic, eavesdroppers cannot determine whether a given packet is yours or (more likely) someone elses. These networks exist, but are still in their infancy; they don't support a full /. crowd yet. So I won't mention the name here; if you're savvy enough, you'll find its name on Google (maybe) or Freenet (certainly).

The whole terrorism witchhunt has seen 1984 approach rapidly. This must be fought. If it happens anyway, at least I can sleep with a clear conscience, since I fought in the war...

Re:Tools

[krymsin01]

Actually, I only think the ones doing any encryption will be the ones that the government/police would actually be interested in tracking.

What about the companies that encrypt their data so that their competitors don't get the edge on them? Or online bank transactions?